US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT4202

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 004202 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS USTR FOR PBURKHEAD, DBELL, JBUNTIN 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS USPTO FOR PFOWLER, JNESS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, KIPR, BEXP, KU 
SUBJECT: INDUSTRY REPS POSITIVE ABOUT GOK IPR PROTECTION 
EFFORTS, FOCUSED ON SPECIFIC END GOALS 
 
REF: KUWAIT 3608 
 
This cable is sensitive but unclassified; please protect 
accordingly.  Not for Internet distribution. 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: Econ Officer met September 25 with Arabian 
Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAA) CEO Scott Butler, his local 
Kuwaiti staff, and Microsoft's local License Compliance 
Manager, Sami Al-Anzy, to discuss the status of IPR 
protection and enforcement in Kuwait.  Butler emphasized that 
he has seen a significant change in IPR enforcement over the 
past year and was encouraged by a number of positive signs 
from the GOK.  He said that he was prepared to provide 
positive feedback to his rights-holder clients and to USTR 
concerning Kuwait's improved IPR protection regime.  Butler 
said that he still hoped to see three specific improvements 
over the next six months: the involvement of municipality and 
police officials in cracking down on street vendor piracy; 
the newly created inter-ministerial IPR Task Force being 
given teeth and purpose with proper high-level involvement by 
all relevant agencies; and for the new copyright law to 
include minimum mandatory jail sentences for IPR piracy 
violations.  Microsoft's Al-Anzy concurred with Butler's 
assessment and added that his current focus was on trying to 
achieve greater software license compliance among small and 
medium businesses, where he said the rate of piracy was as 
high as 90%.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) Econ Officer met September 25 with AAA CEO Scott 
Butler, his local Kuwaiti staff, and Microsoft's local 
License Compliance Manager, Sami Al-Anzy, to discuss the 
status of IPR protection and enforcement in Kuwait.  Butler 
said that he has seen a significant change in IPR enforcement 
activities over the past year and that he felt that Kuwait 
was really making progress.  He said that he was now willing 
to make this point both to his IPR rights-holder clients and 
to USTR, with whom he is in regular contact.  Al-Anzy 
concurred with Butler's assessment. 
 
3.  (SBU) Butler compared Kuwait to its GCC neighbors and 
explained that, compared to Dubai, Kuwait still has a lot of 
work to do.  He explained how when Kuwaiti Information 
Ministry Undersecretary Ibrahim Al-Nouh recently traveled to 
Dubai, AAA set up a number of meetings and discussions that 
"really opened Al-Nouh's eyes."  "He saw how the police were 
cooperating with the Ministries and how everyone was on 
board, it really blew him away," Butler explained.  He added 
that, while Kuwait is lagging behind Dubai on IPR enforcement 
and protection, it is doing better than Oman and that Oman's 
stagnant progress on IPR protection "may be a showstopper in 
the FTA negotiations."  He also said that "Saudi Arabia is 
regressing" and was showing signs of becoming a real problem 
in the region. 
 
4.  (SBU) Butler said that there were still three specific 
things that he would like to see in order for Kuwait to move 
off the Special 301 Priority Watch List.  First, he 
explained, the AAA still considers street vendor piracy a 
major problem.  He said that he would like to try and set up 
a meeting with Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of 
Municipality Affairs Ahmed Baqer Al-Abdullah, in his capacity 
overseeing the municipalities, in order to ask for more 
street-level enforcement within the municipalities. 
 
5.  (SBU) The second thing that Butler wanted to see was for 
the newly created inter-ministerial IPR Task Force to be 
given teeth and a real purpose with proper high-level 
involvement by all relevant agencies.  He echoed what we have 
heard from other interlocutors, that the formation of this 
committee was a positive development but that it had to begin 
its work rather than existing in name only.  He also wanted 
to make sure that there would be active police involvement on 
this committee. 
 
6.  (SBU) Finally, Butler wanted to see mandatory minimum 
jail sentences included for IPR piracy violations in the new 
copyright law.  He said that he and his staff had not yet had 
a chance to review the most recent changes and hoped that the 
Embassy and/or USTR would continue to push for jail sentences 
to be included.  He was assured Embassy would continue to 
push for that, and that USTR would likely have a chance to 
review the new law when it was completed in draft. 
 
7.  (SBU) Asked about the Kuwaiti IPR Association headed by 
Shaykh Salman Dawood Al-Sabah, Butler said that he knew 
Shaykh Salman when he used to work for the Ministry of 
Information.  Al-Anzy of Microsoft said that he also knows 
Shaykh Salman, and that he "didn't do much at the Ministry of 
Information."  Al-Anzy said that Shaykh Salman had propagated 
an idea while at the Ministry for IPR rights-holder to 
basically "pay for IPR protection" and that, when his idea 
did not catch on, he left the Ministry and started this 
private association.  Al-Anzy said that, unlike other Kuwaiti 
NGOs, the IPR Association is not funded by the government. 
He said most of the members are professors from Kuwait 
University.  Butler and Al-Anzy agreed that Shaykh Salman 
"wants to be politically active" and is perhaps leading this 
organization in order to raise his own profile.  They both 
also agreed though that he did appear to genuinely want to 
help with the problem and may be useful in conveying messages 
to the Prime Minister. 
 
8.  (SBU) On how the business community could get more 
involved with IPR protection, Butler said that the Kuwait 
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) could be used to 
funnel information to the new inter-ministerial IPR task 
force, and to organize public forums and other educational 
events.  Al-Anzy explained that his current focus was on 
trying to achieve greater software license compliance among 
small and medium businesses, where he said the rate of piracy 
was as high as 90%.  He said that KCCI could be used to help 
in this regard, to raise awareness among the business 
community. 
 
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Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
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LEBARON