VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #0383/01 0631212
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041212Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1786
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS CAIRO 000383 
 
SENSTIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR EG
SUBJECT:  2009 SPECIAL 301 REVIEW 
 
REF:  STATE 8410 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1.   (SBU) SUMMARY:  Based on continued efforts by the Government of 
Egypt (GOE) to protect intellectual property rights in Egypt, we 
recommend that Egypt stay on the Special 301 watch list.  On the 
pharmaceutical and software sides, the Ministry of Health and 
Minister of Telecom are taking a much more aggressive approach. 
Recent international developments, including the case of adulterated 
Chinese dairy products, have raised the public's awareness of the 
dangers of counterfeit and substandard products, which provides some 
political impetus for the government's efforts in these areas.  We 
continue to have concerns in the area of copyright as related to 
books, music and movies, all of which fall under the jurisdiction of 
the Ministry of Culture.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Software 
-------- 
¶2.  (SBU) The GOE's Information Technology Industry Development 
Agency, ITIDA, falls within the Ministry of Telecommunications. 
Having wrested responsibility for IPR protection for software from 
the Ministry of Culture in 2007, ITIDA continues to expand its 
activities.  Over the past year, ITIDA, which has the lead within 
the government for promoting development of Egypt's IT industry, has 
made considerable progress in IPR protections for software over the 
past year.   As indicated in the ITIDA submission under the 301 
process, the agency continues to participate in dozens of police 
raids throughout Egypt every month.  Most of their efforts have 
focused on users, including in raids on internet cafes and computer 
stores.  More recently, however, they conducted their first big raid 
on a facility that manufactures pirated software CDs, including from 
Microsoft and Electronic Arts.  This company has been a source of 
pirated software not only for Egypt but the entire region. 
Microsoft has worked closely with ITIDA to bring this case to court. 
 Electronic Arts, which is not represented in Egypt, ran into some 
bureaucratic barriers to filing a case, but ITIDA worked closely 
with their representatives in the U.S.   In the end, ITIDA was able 
to bring the Electronic Arts case to court as well. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In all, hundreds of these cases have been brought to 
court, and the government has been obtaining convictions, including, 
as cited in the ITIDA submission, criminal convictions.  We would 
note that the ITIDA submission is in itself an example of improved 
transparency on the part of the GOE -- this is the first time that 
the GOE has provided us with actual case numbers. 
 
Pharmaceutical 
-------------- 
¶4.  (U) The Ministry of Health also continues in its efforts to 
protect IPR, including through reform and streamlining of the drug 
registration and approval process, and transparent drug price 
policies, although challenges remain.  U.S. companies in Cairo agree 
that improvements in the registration process also work to protect 
IPR.  The lack of security in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Office was 
long a concern to firms wanting their proprietary information 
safeguarded properly; the new office space, to which the public is 
no longer admitted, is a vast improvement.  With the new option for 
on-line registration of new pharmaceutical products, companies are 
no longer obliged to hire agents to represent them; the agents had 
often been suspected of being a major source of leaked information 
on new products. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The Ministry of Health has recently appointed Kamal Sabra 
as assistant minister for Pharmaceutical Affairs.  Sabra has 
previously worked in Ireland, as well as in the pharmaceutical 
industry.  Since joining the ministry, he has opened the lines of 
communications with the industry, and is beginning take steps to 
address their specific concerns.  We are optimistic that as he gets 
a handle on the issues and the players, he will be able to push the 
IPR agenda effectively in the pharmaceutical and medical devices 
sector. 
 
Other issues 
------------ 
¶6.  (U) Interdiction:  In recent months, the GOE has identified 
bureaucratic obstacles to interdiction of pirated goods at the 
border as an issue.  Under the current rules, a company whose 
products have been pirated elsewhere, and subsequently imported into 
Egypt, must file a complaint with Egyptian Customs in order to have 
those goods seized.  (NOTE:  Egyptian police do not have similar 
restrictions on their seizure of those goods once they enter Egypt.) 
 In the wake of the recent milk scandal in China, the GOE is taking 
a closer look at this problem.  The Ministry of Trade has been 
working with Customs, which falls under the Ministry of Finance, to 
resolve this problem.  We expect that changes to the legislation 
governing such seizures will be made, to allow Customs to seize the 
pirated goods without a formal complaint. 
 
¶7.  (U) International obligations:  The GOE is also working to join 
appropriate international treaties and conventions related to IPR. 
In December, Egypt acceded to the Madrid Protocol for international 
registration of marks.  In addition, the Egyptian cabinet is now 
looking at amendments to Egyptian law to allow Egypt to join the 
International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of 
Plants.  ITIDA reports that Egypt is in the process of joining the 
Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of 
Microorganisms for the Purpose of Patent Procedure, and the Rome 
Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers, of 
Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Egypt has a ways to go in terms of protecting 
IPR, but has clearly made progress over the past two years.  The 
Ministry of Health continues to adhere to its informal commitments 
on data protection, in the absence of a broader trade agreement. 
The Ministry of Telecom, through ITIDA, is aggressively pursuing 
pirated software cases in the economy.  The Ministries of Trade and 
Finance are cooperating on an interagency basis to work out barriers 
to Customs seizures.  And Egypt is moving to join some of the 
international conventions to supplement its own legislation in a 
range of sectors. 
SCOBEY