The Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association (CBEMA) represents the leading edge of American high technology companies in computers, business equipment and telecommunications. It is the trade association of producers of information processing, business and communications products, supplies and services. Its members had combined sales of more than $185 billion in 1986. They employ more than 1.7 million people worldwide. In 1986, the U.S. computer and business equipment industry had exports of $17.120 billion and imports of $14.936 billion. The trade surplus was $2.184 billion. That trade surplus could be larger. One of the factors retarding the growth of the surplus is the violation of U.S. companies' intellectual property rights around the world. And that problem is why CBEMA lends its full support to make the United States a signatory to the Berne Convention. International Intellectual Property Needs High technology rests on intellectual property. The ideas behind computer hardware, software and services are crucial to the industry's future. The disks themselves, the chips and boards mean very little. But the design of the chips, the sequence of commands in software, the algorithms that produce answers are the reasons people buy and use computers. These designs, sequences and algorithms are not objects that can be locked up in a warehouse and guarded against theft. They are ideas that have to be -2 implemented broadly to have meaning. Like books or music, it is the use of computers that is important. To ensure a constant flow of improved technology, governments around the world have granted intellectual property protection to the ideas behind our industry. For software, the primary protection is copyright. This Subcommittee and most notably its Chairman have been crucial in the battle to extend and strengthen copyright law. But today copyrights are commonly violated by international pirates who make unauthorized copies of software and then sell those copies for a fraction of their legitimate market price. In a recent report, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (of which CBEMA is a member) estimates that on the domestic economies of nine developing countries alone, the United States is losing $128 million in software sales annually. And we cannot even begin to estimate the amount we are losing through exports of pirated software from these countries onto the international marketplace. Solving this problem requires a series of carefully-planned steps. The U.S. has already taken some. Government delegations have negotiated vast improvement to software protection in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. Need for the Berne Convention -3 Signing the Berne Convention is another in this series of steps we should take toward solving international piracy. It provides a higher level of protection than that afforded by the Universal Copyright Convention, to which the U.S. subscribes. The United States is the only major developed country in the Free World that is not a Berne signatory. And that creates a negotiating problem. We are pressuring trading partners in developing countries to meet high, worldwide standards of intellectual property protection. But we are not in the best position to do that when we do not provide as much protection as other countries. "Why shouldn't we be allowed to have a unique standard of protection," our partners are asking, "when the U.S. also has a lesser standard of protection." Intellectual property protection is far too important to the future of the committed itself to promoting enhanced intellectual property rights protection hrough bilateral negotiations and by seeking the inclusion of intellectual roperty rights on the next GATT agenda. We must give our negotiators maximum upport in their fight to win that protection. Signing the Berne Convention ill, we believe, strengthen the position of our negotiators. -4 In summary, the Berne Copyright Convention: Is consistent with one of the major themes Congress expressed in the Trade Act of 1985, which gave the Government authority to negotiate and use tools to secure the adoption of adequate and effective protection of intellectual property by our trading partners. Is fully consistent with the objective of the Administration to promote intellectual property rights protection worldwide. The U.S. should adhere to the Berne Convention at the earliest possible date. GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS OFFICE ABA net 140 DIRECTOR Robert D Evans STAFF DIRECTOR FOR GOVERNMENTAL LIAISON Craig H. Baab AAnet 185 STAFF DIRECTOR FOR BAR LIAISON Kevin Dracoll ABA/net 462 STAFF DIRECTOR FOR MEMBER LIAISON Irene R. Emellem ABA/net 461 LEGISLATIVE COORDINATORS Lilian 8 Caskun Denise A Cardman E. Bruce Nicholson ABA/net 202 STAFF DIRECTOR FOR INFORMATION SERVICES Sharon Greene ABA net 204 EDITOR WASHINGTON LETTER STATE LEGISLATIVE Patrick Sheehan We understand that on February 9 and 10 your Subcommittee We appreciate your efforts and those of your colleagues to bring the matter of U.S adherence to a successful conclusion. |