US embassy cable - 05SANTODOMINGO2579

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 
- - - - 
 
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 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
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 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
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 
- - - - - - 
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