Kamil Idris, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization visited Bulgaria on July 5 and 6 to present his report on intellectual property rights protection in the country.

Lora Petrova from Sofia News Agency approached him for a comment on the issue.

Q: What are your impressions from the protection of the intellectual property rights in Bulgaria?

A: We are very satisfied with regard of cooperation with Bulgaria and our impressions are generally positive. But there are still many challenges lying ahead, in particular on enforcement of intellectual property rights and the fight against piracy and counterfeit. The government has taken important measures through legislative process, but still the challenges ahead of us are important. We work very closely with the government, the judiciary, the customs, the police and the enforcement agencies to make sure that fight against piracy and counterfeit is done at institutional and legal level.

Q: Do you plan to sign any further cooperation agreements with the government?

A: We have already signed several cooperation agreements with the government and we still plan to sign more agreements mainly to support the legislation in the country and strengthen the administrative and legal infrastructure for the protection of inventions, innovations, authors' rights and other related issues in the field of copyright.

Q: Can you give us more details on the global protection systems and services and how can the Bulgarian business benefit from them?

A: The global protection systems depend on the international environment. WIPO is an international legislative authority that creates norms in the field of intellectual property but equally important these days are the economic implications of intellectual property and this is why we have embarked on serious projects regarding creating industries and protection of small and medium sized enterprises. In Bulgaria the industry in general is represented by over 97% of small and medium sized enterprises and this is why with global challenges ahead the companies have to be supplied with intellectual property tools in order to improve their competitiveness on the international market. This is why for Bulgarian economy the protection of small and medium sized enterprises is critical.

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