BSA and FICCI to Launch Tool-Kit to Protect IP Rights
28 February 2014
An international advocate for the software is launching a tool-kit to protect IP rights, jointly with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in March, Business Standard reported.
Gouri Thounaojam, manager-program of the Business Software in Alliance India, said in the first phase, the tool-kit will be in Gujarat and Rajasthan with capacity building workshops for the law enforcement agencies, such as police and customs, in these states to help strengthen government machinery to handle IP rights infringement issues.
According to the BSA Global Software Piracy Study 2011, the piracy rate in India was 63%, which is of US$2.93 billion commercial value.
“The industry is plagued by issues like lower production efficiency and low-end technology in production systems which are leading to their inability to match the prices and quality standards with global suppliers,” said Thounaojam. “Under the circumstances, there is a need for these SME to better align the present assets; both hardware and software to grow their businesses. Moreover, SMEs caught using pirated software may end up degrading their market value and goodwill. SMEs must use licensed copy of the software.”
The report said BSA had also developed a portal site www.verafirm.org for companies to manage software licenses effectively.
The FICCI is the largest and oldest business organization with an indirect membership of over 250,000 companies from various regional chambers of commerce.
