14 DAY TRIAL // Markets that strengthen intellectual property protection will see a wide range of beneficial results from fueling innovation to driving economic growth via the creation of new jobs and boosted revenue, Microsoft argues on World IP Day.
By joining the World Intellectual Property Organization for World IP Day (April 26), the Redmond company is underlining the fact that weak IP protection only contributes to encouraging counterfeiting and piracy, with a focus on software products.
Just by curbing the global piracy rate by 10% some 500,000 new IT jobs would be created worldwide while also generating $142 billion in transactions. The software giant cited the numbers from a 2010 Business Software Alliance study.
“In addition to strengthening the economy, sound IP policies can help reduce software piracy and counterfeiting, which we know sap government resources, threaten legitimate businesses and expose consumers to the risks that come from using non-genuine software,” noted David Finn, associate general counsel for Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft.
“Software piracy and counterfeiting tend to thrive in places with weak IP protection, and this has an enormous, and negative impact on the global economy.”
However, there are markets in which weak IP protection is the best that software companies can hope for.
Even at this point in time, there are countries which do not offer innovators the possibility to protect virtual inventions as the patent system is limited to just physical designs.
The global economic and social impacts of counterfeiting and piracy is only expected to deepen in the next few years.
This phenomenon is estimated to cause loses of $1.7 trillion by 2015, according to a study commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce this year, loses which could translate into the shedding of millions of jobs.
Patent systems around the world need to evolve in order to mirror the evolution of technology and the increasing role that the virtual / online / Cloud world is playing for innovators.
“Consumers and legitimate businesses are asking us to take action and reduce the risks that non-genuine software exposes them to, and we are 100 percent committed to helping them,” Finn added.
“Microsoft invests heavily in technologies, education and enforcement programs to make software piracy more difficult, and we will continue to push for effective IP regulations on behalf of consumers and businesses.”