SANTO DOMINGO 2005 IPR PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SANTO DOMINGO 002579

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR INL/C A. SHANTI, EB/TPP/IPE A. AREIAS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KIPR ECON EFIN DR
SUBJECT: SANTO DOMINGO 2005 IPR PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR
TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

REF: STATE 48295


1. Santo Domingo requests USD 6,500funding to bring two IPR
enforcement experts to the Dominican Republic for separate
two-day training sessions for enforcement authorities charged
with combating television broadcast piracy and pharmaceutical
patent piracy. These experts would also be used for one day
each of public affairs programming to raise public awareness
of the benefits and requirements of intellectual property
rights. Detail responding to reftel guidance and a breakdown
of costs follow, in format prescribed reftel.

(begin text)

Part I
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1. Economic Impact on U.S. Interests. According to IIPA,s
2005 Special 301 recommendations, piracy in the Dominican
Republic accounted for trade losses in 2004 of USD 2 million
in cinema filmss, USD 10.3 million in music, USD 3 million in
software and USD 1 million in books. The U.S.-Dominican
Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
signed in 2004 is awaiting ratification. If implemented,
the agreement will create increased opportunities for trade,
but U.S. exporters of intellectual property will benefit
fully only if IPR protection is improved.


2. Crime and Security Considerations. Politically
influential perpetrators of IPR-related crimes are widely
viewed by the public as immune to punishment for their
actions. Channel 5 (Telemicro) regularly broadcasts stolen
movies and has done so for years. The owner of the station
has donated heavily to political campaigns, including that of
the current president. According to accounts of local IPR
attorneys, this individual has used threats and other
intimidating tactics to block individuals who want to limit
his illegal activity. It is reported that he asserts that he
can do as he pleases because he is untouchable by the
authorities. A Dominican court found the station guilty of
broadcast piracy for the first time in a case in late 2004.
The station was fined a relatively minor amount and one of
its managers sentenced to a short jail sentence. Both
verdicts are still under appeal.


3. Relevance to Other U.S. Objectives. CAFTA contains
specific requirements for the Dominican Republic to
strengthen its IPR protection regime. U.S. assistance to
help the country achieve CAFTA requirements would directly
affect the success of CAFTA. The first priority of Embassy
Santo Domingo's Mission Performance Plan is the strengthening
of law enforcement and judicial systems.


4. Political Will. When Leonel Fernandez took office in
August, 2004 he appointed individuals of integrity to the
principal law enforcement positions in his cabinet and in the
security forces. There has been progress both in the courts
and in administrative actions since that time. Just last
week, for instance, the District Attorney in the country's
second city of Santiago raided a television station that was
regularly and flagrantly broadcasting pirated material
nationwide, confiscated files and equipment and put the
station off the air. The head of the Industrial Property
office told EcoPol Counselor this week that he is committed
to overhauling the country,s neglected patent system, but
that his office needs training to do so. He has recently
consulted with other Latin American patent offices and is
seeking contacts and guidance from United States
authorities. Since January, 2005 the Fernandez
administration has been preparing and submitting quarterly
reports on actions to enforce laws on broadcast piracy, as
agreed in a bilateral side letter to the August 2004 CAFTA
agreement.


5. Capacity to Achieve Measurable Progress. There are clear
targets for enforcement of piracy. Three other major
broadcasters and many more minor television stations that
pirate material. Working to stop each one of the remaining
stations from continuing illegal practices would provide
measurable results. Application of training on piracy of
pharmaceutical products could be verified by administrative
actions undertaken by the Patent Office in response to
unjustified requests for "compulsory licensing" of patented
pharmaceuticals and enforcement actions to remove illegal
medicines from the market.

Part II. Components of an Effective IPR Regime
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1. Legal Framework. U.S. authorities confirm that the
existing legal system provides sufficient tools for
enforcement. CAFTA commitments require strengthening the
Dominican IPR protection regime to conform with, and in many
areas to exceed WTO norms. This would include criminalizing
end-user piracy, which would provide strong deterrence
against piracy and counterfeiting. CAFTA will require the
Dominican Republic to authorize the seizure, forfeiture, and
destruction of counterfeit and pirated goods and the
equipment used to produce them. The CAFTA requires measures
authorizing both statutory and actual damages for copyright
infringement and for trademark piracy.


2. Enforcement Capacity. Despite strong patent and
copyright laws passed in 2000, enforcement is still lacking.
We want to help the Dominicans strengthen the basic structure
already in place. The change of governments in mid-August,
2004 led to major turnover in government personnel, so that
many new employees do not have adequate grounding in
principals of intellectual property enforcement.

3. Border controls. Piracy is essential a question of
domestically produced counterfeits of illegal public
broadcast of cinema films licensed only for home viewing,
legitimately available for purchase locally. Although border
controls in general are relatively ineffective, this fact has
limited effect on the problem.


4. Government-Industry Cooperation: Under the new
administration this area shows potential for improvement.
Legitimate IPR users constitute a lobby favorable to
enforcement. These include, for example, the many operators
of franchised video rental operations, members of an industry
association, and the association of representatives and
manufacturers of licensed pharmaceutical products.


5. Effective International Cooperation. The Dominican
Republic has ratified the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO
Performances and Phonograms Treaty, but the World
Intellectual Property Organization as treaty registrar has
not recorded the deposit by the Dominican Republic of its
instruments of ratification for these two treaties. The
director of the Industrial Property Office participates in
international meetings at WIPO.


6. Public Awareness. There is low public consciousness of
IPR issues of piracy. Seminars will offer the Embassy and
the Dominican authorities opportunities to publicize the
requirements and the benefits of IPR.


7. Senior-level Engagement by Public Officials: The
Secretary of Industry and Commerce and the Director of the

SIPDIS
Patent Office are cooperating to improve IPR protection here.
The Attorney General has appointed a Deputy Attorney General
with responsibility for intellectual property issues.

Part III Project Criteria and Metrics
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1. Targeted to U.S. Priorities. As noted, improvement of
law enforcement and judicial systems is the first priority of
the Mission Performance Plan. The project proposes to focus
on two issues: television broadcast piracy and pharmaceutical
patent piracy. Television piracy affects U.S. cinema
producers almost exclusively. As mentioned above, fighting
television broadcast piracy is a specific commitment under
CAFTA, one of the United States major initiatives in the
region. Similarly, preventing patent abuse of
pharmaceuticals would protect many U.S. companies and improve
the environment for business and investment. U.S. support of
IPR protection in these two areas would be welcomed by U.S.
industry, which has praised the Embassy for its efforts in
these areas to date.


2. Strong Support of Host Government. As described above,
the Embassy has established collaborative working relations
with the Secretary of Industry and Commerce, the heads of the
offices for industrial property and for copyright, and with
the Attorney General and his staff. Our project is targeted
at those individuals.


3. Addresses Key Gap. As noted above, the Dominican
government agencies charged with protecting patents and
copyrights are inexperienced but willing and would benefit
from targeted training.We propose to offer training for
enforcement of copyright protection related to television
broadcasting piracy and patent protection related to
pharmaceuticals.


4. Capacity for near term, measurable results. By targeting
those offices directly involved with patent and copyright
protection, we expect that the benefits will be near term.
In the case of combating television piracy, we will measure
success in terms of actions undertaken against television
stations that commit piracy and the percentage level of video
piracy observed. In that of pharmaceuticals, we will measure
it by the number of enforcement actions, the outcomes of
petitions for "compulsory licenses," and reduction in the
number of pirated U.S. products available in the market.


5. Strong Project Oversight/Accountability. Our project
calls for bringing two experts to the Dominican Republic to
provide training and guidance to targeted audiences. The
expenses involved are those required for their travel,
honoraria, hotel and per diem. The Embassy's Economic and
Political Section will be responsible for all project
oversight and accountability.

Proposal
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Embassy Santo Domingo requests USD 6,500 to bring two IPR
enforcement experts to the Dominican Republic, separately,
for 2 days each:

One copyright/IPR enforcement expert to provide training
related to investigating broadcast piracy and to participate
in public affairs programming concerning copyright of
cinematic productions.

Travel: USD 1,000 est.
Honorarium: 3 days x USD 500/day = USD1,500
Hotel/Per diem: 3 days x USD 250/day = USD 750
Total: $3,250

One expert on pharmaceuticals and international IPR
instruments (WTO TRIPS, WIPO, etc.) to provide training
related to patent protection, international legal provisions,
compulsory licensing, and investigation of
pharmaceutical piracy

Travel: USD 1,000 est.
Honorarium: 3days x USD 500/day = USD 1,500
Hotel/Per diem: 3 days x USD 250/day = USD 750
Total: USD 3,250
HERTELL