IP Watch
Developed countries are looking for ways to address the ongoing lack of intellectual property enforcement and efforts to bypass international trade obligations in the four biggest emerging global economies, as well as emulation of this behaviour by other emerging economies in particular as the four countries have a stronger voice in international fora, a panel of United States trade experts said this week.

Brazil, Russia, India and China, often referred to as the “BRIC” countries, were the subject of a 1 September discussion gathering entitled, “The BRIC effect – part three: intellectual property rights and future paths for US policy.” The event was meant to explore “how best to calibrate the US policy toward these countries in the years ahead,” but mainly offered a description of the problem.

The event was the last in a three-part series held by the Washington, DC-based United States Chamber of Commerce International Division and Global Intellectual Property Center.

China remained at the head of the discussions with speakers describing concerns and challenges with intellectual property protection, counterfeiting and piracy in the country. A Chamber speaker said that these are a concern both for US and Chinese companies. If the copyright sector has shown improvement in terms of copyright protection, the levels of counterfeiting and piracy have not dropped significantly, he said. Dialogue between the two countries is important, he said, citing as an example the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade or JCCT (IPW, Copyright Policy, 1 June 2010).

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