StrategEast Founder and President Anatoly Motkin in his op-ed for the Financial Times which was published on the 4th of September states: “According to a Special 301 Report published annually by the US trade representative’s office, one of the principal accusations the US government makes against post-Soviet states included in the report’s watch list is the use of unlicensed software by government agencies. An understanding of the value of protecting intellectual property rights is absent not only among ordinary citizens but also in their government institutions.” Nevertheless, most post-Soviet countries have declared their intention to transition from a resources-based economy to a knowledge-driven one, writes Mr. Motkin.
In order to facilitate such a transition, StrategEast’s President recommends to convey a simple message to the post-Soviet states: protecting intellectual property is of great economic interest to you and your citizens, and is the only way to ensure the integration of your economies into the new, global knowledge economy. It will help these states to reduce their reliance on resources and to start generating added value in their territories.
As an example, Anatoly Motkin names the IT industry in the post-Soviet countries. Today, hundreds of thousands of highly skilled specialists generate billions of dollars in export revenues, mainly providing outsourced services to western companies. Nevertheless, in almost all cases, the rights, patents and licenses to these products and services are secured in countries where their intellectual property will be properly protected: in the EU or US. The only remittances post-Soviet countries get are those required to cover the direct costs of creating the product: wages and office leases.
Anatoly Motkin outlines road map components of key reforms necessary to make post-Soviet states respect intellectual property rights:
- transparent administration and regulation of collective management organizations, which collect royalties on behalf of the owners of intellectual property (music, films, software, etc) from local enterprises that use them (television and radio stations, websites, etc);
- enforcement of restrictions on the use of unlicensed software by government agencies, and the implementation of other means to counter copyright infringement;
- the emphasis should be on the direct benefits the economies of these countries will receive from registering their own inventions and solutions under local laws.
“A new approach must replace the west’s stick-only policy of punishing post-Soviet states for copyright infringement by excluding their goods from the general system of preferences, with the carrot of simple economic calculations showing governments the benefits of respecting intellectual property rights and, consequently, integrating their economies into the global knowledge-driven economy.” – concludes Anatoly Motkin.
Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/ff9ab5f5-8ab2-3b94-b180-8de5e4683271
