TPP to tighten copyright rules

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes many intellectual property provisions that member states must follow. If found in violation of these rules, enterprises will face criminal charges.

For example, the TPP’s Article 15 on criminal enforcement requires criminal penalties in cases of willful copyright infringement, including infringement that occurs for the purpose of financial gain as well as “significant willful copyright or related rights infringements that have no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain”.

This means that many software firms, such as Microsoft, can file lawsuits against copyright violators. According to Microsoft Vietnam, the software copyright violation in Vietnam caused an annual loss of about US$200 million to software providers.

Roland Chan, senior director of BSA/TheSoftware Alliance’s Asia Pacific compliance programme, said that according to the alliance’s statistics, the personal computer software piracy rate in Vietnam stood at 81% in 2013. This figure was quite high when compared to the average of 62% in the Asia Pacific region, and 43% globally. The commercial value of all unlicensed software totalled US$620 million.

BSA has filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Trimmers Vietnam Company Limited for illegal use of alliance member Microsoft’s software.

Located in the southern province of Binh Duong’s Thuan An town, Trimmers Vietnam specialises in manufacturing garment accessories and bags. The company was accused of illegally using a number of Microsoft software in its business operations. Yje software is worth VND748 million (US$35,120).

Tarun Sawney, BSA’s senior director for Anti-Piracy in the Asia-pacific, said BSA might continue filing lawsuits against many enterprises in Vietnam for software piracy.

‘Many foreign enterprises are illegally using unlicensed software in Vietnam. We told them to stop. If they don’t, we will use all of the tools available under Vietnamese laws to protect our legitimate interests,’ Sawney said.

According to Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan, almost all intellectual property rights violations in Vietnam are currently resolved by charging fines.

‘However, if the TPP takes effects, such infractions could face either fines or criminal charges. This will be a huge blow to violators’, Quan said.

According to lawyers, enterprises in Vietnam must pay due attention to copyright issues. In order to curb Vietnam’s exports, TPP member markets previously used technical barriers. But after the TPP comes into force, these markets will be able to use copyrights as a rigid barrier.

For example, they can accuse Vietnamese firms of using unlicensed Microsoft software in order to refuse the importation of the firms’ goods. Specifically, Chile and Peru, which are the TPP member states, are employing software violation accusations as a barrier.

Currently, TPP members represent 40% of exports, 22% of imports, and 38% of foreign direct investment in Vietnam.

The US, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore are among the top 10 investors as well as trading partners of Vietnam.

The TPP, whose negotiations officially came to a close last October, will be signed on February 4 in New Zealand. It embraces 12 member states of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, and Vietnam.