GOAM VETS NEW COPYRIGHT LAW

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 001307

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, EUR/ACE, EB/IPC
PLS PASS TO USTR KUHLMANN, KLEIN, USPTO JURBAN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON KIPR AM
SUBJECT: GOAM VETS NEW COPYRIGHT LAW


(U) THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.

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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) The Head of Armenia's Intellectual Property
Agency, Armen Azizyan, has presented a proposed new
copyright law to give the public and the international
community a chance to comment before he submits the law to
the National Assembly during the 2005 fall session. Azizyan
noted (correctly) that although the draft law is WTO-
compliant, as is the current law, Armenia's real problem is
its weak enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
Curiously, the new draft law does not address the biggest
legal impediment to IPR protection in Armenia: police will
still not be allowed to enforce IPR without a complaint from
the aggrieved party. End Summary.

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DRAFT LAW SUBMITTED FOR PUBLIC CONSIDERATION
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2. (SBU) In a series of seminars at the end of June,
Armenia's IPR Agency presented for public comment a new
draft law on copyright. In his opening remarks, the
Agency's head Armen Azizyan said that the new law responds
to comments from ArmAuthor, a non-profit organization
representing Armenian authors (whose written works are often
copied illegally in Armenia),Armenia's many software firms,
and the police. Azizyan told us that he hoped to make
Armenia's Copyright law clearer, more consistent, and to
increase civil liability for violating copyright or related
rights. He added that while the WTO (and USTR) deemed the
current copyright law WTO compliant, Armenia did not
properly vet the law among the various stakeholders because
the government was forced to pass it in an eleventh-hour run-
up to its WTO accession.

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DESPITE LAW, PIRACY REMAINS COMMONPLACE
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3. (SBU) The IPR Agency admits that the piracy of films,
music and software is ubiquitous in Armenia, the provisions
of the Copyright Code notwithstanding. General
understanding of IPR, even among lawyers and judges, is
weak. Although the government has formed a special IPR
enforcement unit in the police, so far they have taken
action only to protect trademarks, prosecuting producers of
counterfeit Armenian products upon complaint of their local
manufacturers. Last year, one local radio station failed to
convince the GOAM to sanction another local station for
recording and re-broadcasting the first station's original
content. When it comes to foreign-produced IPR, the single
greatest impediment to enforcement is the fact that police
officers have no right to prosecute IPR violations without a
complaint, filed in Armenia, from the aggrieved party.
Without the right to act without a formal complaint and
without local collective representation of authors and
artists, there is no effective protection of international
IPR in Armenia.

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COMMENT: GOAM MUST TAKE STEPS ON ENFORCEMENT
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(SBU) Since the bulk of pirated goods in Armenia have
international content, the requirement that the aggrieved
party formally complain before the police investigate or
prosecute piracy is a subterfuge by which the GOAM chooses
to ignore IPR for the most part. Some in the GOAM,
including the Minister of Justice, argue that ex officio IPR
enforcement will only create more corruption in the police
force. Nevertheless, if Armenia relies solely on civil
remedies to enforce IPR, it will remain impossible, as it is
today, to find licensed software, films or music in Armenia,
and movie theatres that buy licensed films will have to
compete with television stations that air unlicensed
versions. We continue to support regulation and enforcement
of IPR in Armenia through USAID and INL programs, and we
will continue to press on the GOAM to pass legislation that
will make Armenia's IPR regime as effective as possible. We
intend to urge the GOAM that it should use this new law to
fill this gap in its enforcement regime, and that even
though Armenia is now in the WTO, we expect the GOAM to keep
taking steps towards effective protection of IPR. End
Comment.


4. (U) Point of contact at Post is Anush Petrosyan, email:
petrosyana@state.gov. We would be happy to send an English
language copy of the proposed law to interested departments
or agencies upon request.
GODFREY