Schoolchildren to be educated about copyright theft

Although copyright theft is still a big problem, great progress has been made recently with the cooperation of all involved.

More will constantly be done in a bid "to catch them young", Godwin Warr, director of the Policy and Regulatory Services at the Commerce Division, said.

He will be taking his message personally to schools in the next scholastic year, accompanied by people affected by the theft whom the students looked up to, such as band members.

In an interview held on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, celebrated on Saturday, Mr Warr said that students had to be informed how to protect their own creations and how they could support the creations of others by not copying and not buying copied material.

Catching them young would help bring about a change of mentality, he said.

Copyright, which covers, among other things, literary works, the arts and music, is only one of the branches of intellectual property.

Intellectual property covers any creations of man, or rather the fruit of the mind. It can be sold, bought, and dealt with, as could any other tangible property.

However, while copyright is automatic - one does not have to register works for them to be copyrighted - this was not the case for trademarks, patents and designs.

Trademarks are used to distinguish products and services; patents are registered new inventions and designs are original forms of objects.

While the design protects the appearance of a product, the patent protects the function.

The patent culture was introduced around the 13th/14th century in Venice but different systems have since been created all over the world.

When a number of countries decided to hold an international fair in Australia, inventors did not want to take part, fearing exposure of their wares with any protection. The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was subsequently drawn up in 1880. The convention created minimum protection for patents, trademarks and design.

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works followed in 1886. Countries also started forming their own laws to comply with international requirements.

Malta's first ordinance regarding the matter - the Industrial Property Protection Ordinance, was enacted in 1899 and some of the trademarks registered at that time are still in use now. The Copyright Act followed in 1911.

Mr Warr said there were in Malta around 35,000 registered trademarks and around 1,000 registered patents.

Very few designs were registered. This could be because aesthetic features changed constantly and were also automatically protected under copyright, which remained in effect for 70 years after the death of the creator.

Giving some recent figures for Malta, Mr Warr said that between 1990 and 2002, 18,372 trademarks; 788 patents and 361 designs were registered.

In the first three months of this year 963 trademarks, 48 patents and four designs were registered.

A design protection lasts 15 years, a patent protection 20 years while trademark protection could be renewed indefinitely.

Mr Warr said that registrations in Malta only covered the Maltese islands, however, it was also possible for people to protect their creations by obtaining a European Union trademark, known as the community trade mark. Once Malta became a member of the EU, the Community Trade Mark would also cover Malta, although Malta's would still not cover the EU. A community patent system is also being created.

For even wider protection, there was also an international system operated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Although Malta was not yet part of this system, it hoped to form part of it within the next two years.

Through this system an applicant wanting protection in a number of countries could save time by applying to WIPO, which assists the individual countries to decide whether to grant the requested protection or not.

There were currently 57 member states in the WIPO Trade Mark Registration system and 118 in the Patents Registration system.

Mr Warr said that in 2001, Malta took on board new legislation covering patents, trademarks and copyright. Designs were, however, still protected under the old ordinance although a new law had now been drafted.

The new copyright legislation gave Customs officials the right to stop anything they suspected of being counterfeit or pirated from entering the country.

A lot of progress had been made by both the police and customs in the sector, especially following the establishment by customs of an Intellectual Property Unit and by the police of the Economic Crime Unit.

Statistics showed that a lot of progress was being registered and both the police and customs were being much more successful in their actions against copyright theft.

Mr Warr said that when it came to copyright, it was up to the copyright holder, if he felt his copyright was being breached, to launch a civil suit against whoever was breaching copyright. A criminal report could also be lodged with the police who would then take further criminal action.

Thankfully, patent, trademark and design theft had never been blatant in Malta.

The division was now getting together with the Association Against Copyright Theft to spread the message that local talent was also badly affected by copyright infringement.

The division and the association are organising a concert, by four local bands at St James Cavalier in Valletta on Friday at 8 p.m. to mark the international day. An exhibition together with the Malta Crafts Council is also being organised.