The authorities’ role in the area of intellectual property rights, specific procedural issues that hinder the settlement of criminal cases, as well as practical cases and development of IP enforcement have been debated at length at the “Successful completion of criminal cases in the area of intellectual property rights” conference, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham) and hosted by Muşat & Asociaţii.
“We are honored to support this initiative and we express our confidence that the future roundtables and conferences organized by AmCham will positively and effectively contribute to improving the dialogue among various authorities and professional bodies in such area, leading to real progress in the observation of intellectual property rights in Romania, either for infringement prevention or completion of criminal case files”, said Anca Buta Muşat, Partner and Head of Intellectual Property practice at Muşat & Asociaţii.
The distinguished speakers, Alexandru Lucian Arjoca (Prosecutor, General Prosecutor’s Office), Vlad Bogdan Constantin (Specialist Officer, Directorate for Intellectual Property, Romanian Border Police), Florica Maria Păun (Customs Expert, the National Customs Authority), Magda Popescu (Lawyer, BSA) and Anca Buta Muşat (Partner, Muşat & Asociaţii) expressed their opinions and shared their professional experience on several IP related subjects. During the conference, the panellists stressed the obstacles impeding the successful administration of infringement cases which inevitably leads to fewer IP infringement cases reaching the court – up to 3% according to the statistics provided by Alexandru Arjoca on this occasion.
It was also emphasized that only 10% of business software piracy reach the court given that the majority of such files are not eventually subject to criminal prosecution due to the alleged lack of social danger. Another hot subject was related to piracy on the Internet affecting especially the music and film industries, participants also debating on the various indicators currently available for quantifying the prejudices deriving from the copyright infringements.
Muşat & Asociaţii’s IP expertise stands out as one of the most dynamic practice areas of the firm. Intensively developed over the past few years, the IP department experienced an unprecedented growth in the volume and complexity of legal projects, as well as a significant enlargement of its legal team of attorneys and IP counselors. Among the clients that have entrusted the firm with the protection of their IP rights or representation before the Court in various litigations arising from the infringement of such rights, are: SBS Broadcasting, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Novachrom Industries, New Line Cinema (U.S.), Jones Apparel (Nine West), The Body Shop, Debenhams, The Peacock Group, Alka Group. Muşat & Asociaţii is one of the first law firms to acknowledge the importance of IP legal practice area in Romania, by establishing a dedicated Intellectual Property department as early as 1998.