ACCESO Derechos Intelectuales explores the rapidly developing world of intellectual property (I.P.) laws and the fresh mechanisms being created to protect I.P. rights. ACCESO Derechos Intelectuales offers new and innovative schemes for enforcement.

ACCESO Derechos Intelectuales is a leading training and research group, forging new legal regimes for copyright, patent and trademarks on the continent. Latin America is rife with intellectual property fraud and piracy. The International Intellectual Property Alliance reports that in 2000 Brazil lost $300 million in sales of CDs due to Ciudad del Este’s booming contraband in pirated goods. Interpol has reported that there are connections between the financial infrastructure behind international terrorism and that behind piracy. Before the United States House Committee on International Relations on July 16th 2003, Ronald K. Noble, Secretary General of Interpol, testified that there are several cases of intellectual property crimes that are related to terrorist funding of Hezbollah in South America. Hezbollah and Al Qaeda cells operate freely between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

"Ciudad de Este, a major contraband center, is the hub of a smuggling business that generates over $12 billion annually."

Increasingly, the theft of intellectual property is becoming a priority for the U.S. and its trading partners. For U.S. entertainment companies, facing billions of dollars of lost royalties and licensing fees annually, it is a critical issue. For multinational drug companies, the profits that are lost to piracy limits money available for research and development. For indigenous people, it is an opportunity to bring sustainable development to their communities as they enter the global economy, ensure their cultural sovereignty and negotiate with multinational pharmaceutical companies eager to exploit their traditional knowledge and practices.

The Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Chile, which went into force on January 1, 2004 provides for a number of new procedures involving intellectual property protection. Chile has long had intellectual property laws but these legal provisions have often gone unenforced. Despite the new Free Trade Agreement and Chilean promises to enforce their own intellectual property laws as well as those that are part of the regime established in 1994 by the World Trade Organization ("TRIPS Agreement" or Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) to which Chile is a Contracting Party, every afternoon, hundreds of vendors sell pirated copies of books, compact discs, DVDs and clothing along Santiago’s major thoroughfares.

The United States Trade Representative ("USTR") has stated that "[t]he protection of intellectual property is important for economic development because it promotes the creation of knowledge industries and provides incentives for increased investment" Yet, almost all countries in Latin American continue to perform poorly in Intellectual Property compliance. In this year’s Special 301 report to Congress, nine Latin American countries merited mention for inadequate laws, enforcement or both.

ACCESO Derechos Intelectuales is ready to reverse this trend.

Our team is developing new and creative models for enforcement to combat this threat. Our models feature technologies to enlighten and empower local officials to pursue violators. We teach techniques related to investigation, prosecution and prevention of these economic crimes to law enforcement officials, protection agencies, lobby groups, artists, as well as others interested in protecting intellectual property rights.

In 2004, the first ACCESO Derechos Intelectuales initiative will be launched as we begin our rigorous training programs for prosecutors throughout Latin America. Partnering with the Attorney-Generals’ offices around the region, ACCESO will develop and execute critical training workshops for law enforcement officials and prosecutors to empower them to enforce intellectual property laws.

The second ACCESO Derechos Intelectuales initiative is our community outreach program. While in our first initiative, we use all the prosecutorial mechanisms to shut down the piracy networks and production sites, in the second initiative the vendors of pirated goods are our target. Rather than prosecuting these vendors, we work to educate and retrain them.

This second initiative is achieved in a number of ways:

a. Public education campaigns through public service announcements for television, cinema and web broadcast, as well as outdoor poster and public space campaign;

b. Intervention programs for at-risk youth who vend pirated goods; and

c. Education modules for middle school students.

ACCESO’s second wave of A-DI programming is geared to bridge the divide among societal classes that is widening exponentially. In 2005, A-DI will be partnering with the leading telecommunications and web technology companies to create mentoring and other educational programs to benefit youth and build human capacity.