Lanka on right track to combat piracy

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

The country is on the right track with the necessary law enforcement for preventing piracy and there is a decline in the piracy in the country, Director General of National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka D.M. Karunaratna said.

“Comparing with the other countries in the region piracy rate in Sri Lanka is high. Both consumers and the genuine traders are affected by the piracy.

Industries such as motor spare parts, book publishing, software, computer, pharmaceuticals, cassette and CD badly impact from piracy in Sri Lanka. Local software industry has lost US $ 86 million in 2006 due to the software piracy,” he said.

“We have noticed that genuine traders in different industries are keen on controlling piracy and using intellectual property system for the economic development in the country.

In any country piracy could be controlled but can not be eliminated completely. Today the Public is much more aware on the pirated products and National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka is conducting awareness programmes for consumers and traders.”

“We are taking constructive steps mainly on training the police, educating magistrates and lawyers.

However there should be long term plan for controlling piracy rate in the country and we are confident that piracy will decline soon in the country,” he said.

Intellectual property system in Sri Lanka directly impacts foreign investments to the country. If their rights are violated no investor will be interested in investing in Sri Lanka. Most of global giants who expect to invest in Sri Lanka make inquires from National Intellectual Property Office on piracy before they invest in the country.

“Piracy is affecting the economic development in the country in various ways. Intellectual Property Act is there to protect creativity and innovation.

Without creativity and innovation any industry could not sustain. It will discourage innovation and creativity of the companies. Piracy also has negative impact on the tax collection and will reduce government revenue in terms of tax,” he said.

“We have sufficient laws and we have established special commercial high courts for intellectual property cases. The private sector need to take advantages from these initiatives for controlling piracy rate in their respective industries and also focus on non violating of others rights.

Consumers also need to avoid purchasing pirated goods which will badly impact the national economy,” he added.