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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 001697 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR INL, EB/IPC, AF/EPS, AND AF/S 
DEPT PASS USTR FOR P COLEMAN AND V ESPINEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIPR ECON ETRD SF
SUBJECT:  2005 IPR TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM 
- PROPOSAL FOR WORKSHOPS WITH MAGISTRATES 
 
REF:  (A) STATE 48295; (B) 2004 PRETORIA 1437; (C) 2004 
 
PRETORIA 1271; (D) 2004 STATE 42798 
 
¶1.  In response to reftel A request for project proposals, 
post submits a $18,650 budget request to conduct workshops 
for South African magistrates in the enforcement of South 
African intellectual property laws.   The proposal is based 
on the workshops we did in 2004 and 2005 in South Africa. 
Working through the Intellectual Property Action Group 
(IPACT), South African IPR lawyers conducted sessions with 
South African national prosecutors in Johannesburg, 
Polokwane, Nelspruit, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, 
Port Elizabeth, and Durban, the major cities in eight South 
African provinces-Gauteng, Northern Province, Mpumulanga, 
Northern Cape, Free State, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and 
KwaZuluNatal. 
 
¶2.  For institutional reasons, it was not considered 
appropriate to have the prosecutors and the magistrates in 
the same room.  Though we were able to do one small workshop 
with some magistrates, this year we focused on the 
prosecutors.  The turnout of about 300 national prosecutors 
was impressive.  A frequent comment by the national 
prosecutors was that we should do the same program for the 
magistrates.  Therefore, we propose a series of workshops in 
the coming year for South African magistrates on IPR law. 
 
¶3. The one-day program would include industry videos on anti- 
piracy; lectures by IPACT lawyers on copyright law, 
trademark law, and procedures under South Africa's 
Counterfeit Goods Act; and discussion of:  expert evidence 
preparation; admission of guilt; evidence and presumptions; 
chain of evidence; analysis of product; the use of civil 
orders in criminal proceedings; sentencing; and knowledge. 
The budget would cover the costs of contracting for the 
venue and associated travel costs for Embassy officer to 
participate. 
 
¶4.  Proposed budget 
 
City           Venue     Travel & per diem of Embassy 
                              officer 
 
Johannesburg   2,500       -0- 
Polokwane      1,000       650 
Nelspruit      1,000       650 
Kimberley      1,000       650 
Bloemfontein   1,000       700 
Cape Town      3,000     1,050 
Port Elizabeth 2,000       750 
Durban         2,000       700 
 
Subtotal       13,500    5,150 
 
Total          $18,650 
 
¶5. IPACT presenters include representatives of the best IPR 
law firms in South Africa as well as the Recording Industry 
of South Africa (RISA), the South African Federation Against 
Copyright Theft (SAFACT), the Business Software Alliance, 
and Microsoft.  Embassy has been able to keep the costs down 
of the workshops by handling many of the logistics with our 
own resources rather than hiring an events coordinator as 
envisioned last year.  Similarly, other IPACT members 
donated training materials, which also contained costs. 
 
¶6.  IPR piracy in the form of counterfeits of U.S. products 
including software, DVDs, and CDs is a major problem in 
South Africa.  While the laws on the books are adequate, 
there has not been sufficient enforcement. In the past year, 
IPACT worked with South Africa's National Prosecuting 
Authority (NPA) to address these issues by conducting 
workshops on South Africa's IPR laws as outlined above.  The 
workshops have been successful because they allowed 
prosecutors to spend an entire day focused solely on IPR 
laws.  The prosecutors asked practical questions at the 
workshops.  Some prosecutors, for example, were not 
previously aware of South Africa's Counterfeit Goods Act and 
had relied almost exclusively on the customs statute to 
seize counterfeit goods.  They said they would use this 
knowledge to be more effective in enforcing IPR laws. 
 
¶7.  At the workshops, the U.S. Embassy representatives have 
raised awareness of the importance of IPR enforcement on 
both U.S. and South African jobs and of the U.S. "STOP" 
initiative - Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy.  The 
cooperation of the NPA in directing hundreds of South 
African prosecutors to attend the workshops demonstrates the 
willingness of South Africa's political will to attack 
intellectual property crime.  The participation of so many 
prosecutors, including the local chief prosecutor, is 
another sign of senior level engagement by public officials. 
Similarly, the completion of evaluation sheets by the 
prosecutors provided useful advice on how we can improve the 
training. 
 
¶8.  After many years of merely discussing IPR issues, IPACT 
finally got training off the ground this past year with the 
U.S. Embassy's support of these workshops with INL funding. 
We would like to continue the momentum we have achieved by 
extending these workshops to the magistrates in the coming 
year.  In the longer term, we would hope to continue these 
IPR enforcement training programs on an annual basis at 
appropriate target audiences.  U.S. funding will allow IPACT 
to be able to build on the success of what we have started. 
FRAZER