*Jorge Sukarie
The issue can be considered 'broken' or hopeless, the reality, however, shows that Brazilian society is becoming more attentive and less prone to the adoption and consumption of pirated products. In the software segment, the national index decreases every year. In 1988, the indexes hovered around 91%. This percentage decreased to 53% in 2011, according to a study presented by BSA – The Software Alliance in partnership with IDC. Worldwide, the loss amounts to US$ 63.5 billion, affecting an average of 42% of world trade. In Latin America, these numbers are even higher, reaching 61%. The financial impact on Brazil is approximately US$ 2.848 billion, placing the country in fifth position in the world, as a result of illegal sales, behind only the United States, China, Russia and India.
Piracy involves not only issues related to unfair competition between companies, but also considerable economic losses to the government in the form of taxes and, mainly, to the consumer due to the low quality and inefficiency of the purchased product. In other sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, the impact is even more worrying, as it is a public health issue. Furthermore, piracy is closely linked to organized crime.
The systematic reversal of these indices involves efforts in search of healthy competition, which fundamentally requires companies committed to respecting the intellectual property laws in force in the country. To this end, the government must also support actions that stimulate this scenario so that both companies, consumers and the government itself benefit and have protection for their investments.
Even in this area, studies prove the need for change. In Brazil, the impact of piracy on hiring numbers reaches 20 thousand positions per year, and the financial impact at US$ 186 million. In the United States, it directly affects 147,000 positions linked to research and development, when the impact on positions linked to software patents is added, which reaches 5,580, totaling 152,580 professionals in this segment alone. If we consider the Telecom sector, there would still be 66 thousand vacancies for non-existent professionals in the area of research and development, due to piracy.
These data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, linked to the National Science Foundation, were recently presented in Brazil by lawyer Travis LeBlanc, special assistant to the attorney general of the State of California, USA, who followed, in January of this year, a case in California, which proves how enforcement of unfair competition laws in that country is intensified. In that event, the California attorney general filed lawsuits against two textile and apparel manufacturers on charges of unfair competition against US companies for using unlicensed software in the production of clothing exported to the State of California.
Brazil is waking up to the need for ethical and loyal action. Recently, to reinforce this purpose, the National Council to Combat Piracy and Crimes against Intellectual Property (CNCP) announced the III National Plan to Combat Piracy 2013-2016 supported on three fronts: educational, economic and inspection. In this sense, the country demonstrates its maturity to also implement legislation that guides and supervises the reverse production policy. The agency also already supports other initiatives, such as the one carried out in partnership with ABES in the Legal Entrepreneur Campaign, which encourages Brazilian businessmen to have a technological infrastructure suited to Intellectual Property laws.
The importance of reinforcing the value of intellectual property for Brazilian companies is not only in the ideological field. US legislation is increasingly strict and those companies that want to export their solutions need to respect the regulations of the countries with which they want to do business, with the risk of not being able to carry out the transactions or even being alerted and suffering penalties in their business. This stricter inspection opens an opportunity for Brazilian law firms to offer consulting services on Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition laws.
This movement may seem like one of repression, but I believe that the effort to reinforce ethical and loyal actions will only bring gains for Brazilian companies, our society and consumers. Companies must, therefore, encourage and respect Intellectual Property and act fairly vis-à-vis their competitors. We all win. The economic cycle of production, distribution and sale becomes much more virtuous.
Jorge Sukarie is president of the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES)
Source: Brasil Econômico, 10/27/2013
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