US embassy cable - 05COLOMBO1335

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001335 
 
SIPDIS 
 
GENEVA FOR USTR 
DEPT PASS TO TIMOTHY BROWNING, US PATENT AND TRADEMARK 
OFFICE 
 
E.O 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, KIPR, EAID, ECON, CE, ECONOMICS 
SUBJECT: IPR SEMINARS IN COLOMBO HIGHLIGHT ISSUES 
 
 
1.  Summary:  A series of USPTO sponsored Intellectual 
Property Rights (IPR) seminars were held in Colombo on 
July 23 and 25 when Professor William O. Hennessey of 
the Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, New Hampshire, 
and Timothy Browning, Attorney-Advisor with the Office 
of Enforcement, Department of External Affairs, U.S. 
Patent and Trademark Office, visited Sri Lanka.  While 
Sri Lanka has begun to enforce IPR laws passed in 2003, 
many gaps in the field became apparent at these 
discussions.  Significant work remains to be done to 
energize local business and artistic communities to 
organize for advocacy of their creative and artistic 
rights, and to assist Customs and Police in their IPR 
investigations.  End Summary. 
 
2.  The Embassy organized a series of IPR discussions 
and seminars from July 23 through 26 to coincide with a 
USPTO sponsored visit of Professor William O Hennessey 
and Timothy Browning.  Professor Hennessey addressed 
post graduate students following an IPR diploma course 
at the Sri Lanka Law College and made presentations to 
government officials and private sector right holders 
in various business and artistic sectors and private 
attorneys.  In addition, Mr. Browning held side 
meetings with senior Police and Customs officers tasked 
with enforcing IPR laws and private prosecutors engaged 
in IPR litigation.  The public seminars were well 
attended, with over 100 participants, indicating 
interest by concerned authorities to learn about IPR. 
The visit received wide coverage in the local press, 
both in the print media and TV. 
 
3.  The speakers impressed upon their various audiences 
the importance of securing intellectual property for 
local innovators and producers as well as global 
companies, and discussed recent developments in IP. 
Dr. D M Karunaratne, Director General, of the National 
Intellectual Property Office (NIPO) attending a press 
round table with the visiting speakers, said that the 
Governemnt will introduce a state policy on IPR soon. 
In addition, new laws to protect traditional knowledge 
are in the pipeline.  Mr. Jazeel, Director Imports and 
Policy Planning of Sri Lanka Customs revealed plans to 
issue new customs implementing regulations on IPR. 
These regulations will set a clear policy on how to 
make complaints and detections. 
 
4.  While Sri Lanka has begun to enforce IPR laws 
passed in 2003, many gaps in the field became apparent 
at these discussions.  A major barrier for trademark 
enforcement is the non- registration of trademarks. 
Trademark registration could take from 2 to 5 years. 
Another major issue is the absence of organizations of 
right holders and artistic rights societies.  Both 
Professor Hennessey and Mr. Browning stressed the 
importance of right holders collaborating to fight 
piracy, and urged them to form such organizations. 
They also emphasized the importance of connecting with 
international right holders organizations such as the 
IFPI. 
 
5.  It was apparent that Sri Lanka Customs needs to be 
the main line of defense as most of the counterfeit 
goods in the market are imported, while some 
counterfeit apparel are also exported from Sri Lanka. 
Both the Customs and the Commercial Crimes division of 
the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) 
have had successes recently.  The police raided 16 
shops for music piracy and most of the shop owners have 
pleaded guilty.  They were fined and also given 
suspended prison sentences.  The police also raided 
several clothing stores for infringing trademarks of 
popular U.S. brand names.  Some of the counterfeit 
apparel had been manufactured in Sri Lanka, some had 
been imported from South East Asia, and some are 
overruns leaked to the market from licensed companies. 
The Customs Department has also detected export 
shipments of counterfeit apparel.  These raids were 
initiated on complaints from right holders or their 
representatives.  Some of the issues that have surfaced 
in these raids are the failure to register trademarks 
in Sri Lanka, lack of Customs awareness of the nature 
of counterfeit trade taking place in Sri Lanka, and the 
absence of right holder's organizations in Sri Lanka. 
Both Sri Lanka customs and police stressed the need for 
right holders to be proactive and make representations 
as a group. 
 
6.  MEntertainment, the local agent for a range of 
international record companies, informed the Embassy of 
a raid of music pirates in the bazaar areas of central 
Colombo, on July 26.  MEntertainment said that these 
raids may have been prompted by the seminars and press 
coverage to the visit.  There was a large contingent of 
Police personnel at the seminars. 
 
7.  Comment:  Coming on the heels of the recent court 
decisions favoring IP rights holders and vendors of 
legitimate goods, these seminars and meetings may be 
the push needed to encourage the formation of Sri 
Lankan IPR advocates, just as the seminars apparently 
led to further raids against vendors of pirated music. 
Post will continue to seek ways to improve the IPR 
regime in Sri Lanka. 
 
LUNSTEAD