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US official urges Korea to fight China IPR piracy

SEOUL - South Korea should be vigilant in protecting its intellectual property rights, especially against piracy prevalent in China, a visiting US government official said on Monday.

"Korea is a major producer of intellectual properties and has a lot to protect globally as well as in Korea," William Lash, assistant secretary of commerce for market access and compliance, said during a press conference in Seoul.

"It is important that Korea be vigilant in protecting its own products," he said.

Raising the issue of the serious piracy situation in China, Lash said it was important for South Korea to become aware of the possible impact of China's failure to protect the intellectual property rights of its own firms.

"Korea should aggressively engage with China in fighting piracy," Lash said.

The US has stepped up efforts to curb piracy in China, which has come under frequent criticism by its trading partners for its loose protection of intellectual property rights. The US incurs losses amounting to nearly US$24 billion annually from piracy in China, the assistant commerce secretary said.

While the dollar figure of South Korea's losses from piracy in China was not immediately available, the number of cases filed with the country's the Korean Intellectual Property Office for violation of intellectual property rights in China nearly doubled to 33 in 2002 from 18 in the previous year.

Considering many firms fail to report cases of intellectual property rights violations, the number could be much higher, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

"People should be aware that piracy costs lives in the forms of counterfeit pharmaceutical products, auto parts and plane parts," Lash said.

It was important that countries become aware of the seriousness of the situation and should map out a common initiative to fight piracy, he added.

(Asia Pulse/Yonhap)

Dec 14, 2004

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