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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Amy Smorodin
March 16, 2006
(202) 289-8928
   

PFF to Co-Host Conferences in Brazil, Argentina
Foundation to Promote Importance of Intellectual Property in South America

WASHINGTON D.C. - Fellows from The Progress & Freedom Foundation will be venturing to South America next month for "Digital Americas 2006," a series of events and meetings with policymakers and industry leaders on the topic of intellectual property. Two consecutive all-day conferences, held in Argentina and Brazil, will focus on the link between economic development and intellectual property rights.

The first scheduled event, "Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Digital World," co-hosted with ESEADE (La Escuela Superior de Economía y Administración de Empresas), will be held April 7th in Buenos Aires. Speakers will be drawn from government agencies and industries with a stake in intellectual property rights. Scheduled to present are: Copyright Registrar Graciela Peiretti; Antonio Millé, President of the Latin American Institute for Information Technology and Law; and intellectual property attorneys Miguel Angel Emery and Martín Carranza Torres.

"Intellectual Property in the Digital World - The Importance for Brazilian Development," co-hosted with ABPI (Associação Brasileira da Propriedade Intelectual), will be held in Sao Paulo on April 11th. The agenda currently includes: U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General for International, Policy and Appellate Matters Gerald Masoudi, Brazilian Secretary of Technology and Innovation Augusto Gadelha Vieira, Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office Software Patent Examiner Antonio Carlos Abrantes, Ministry of Science and Technology's Marylin Peixoto da Silva Nogueira, and Brazilian Congressman Júlio Semeghini.

PFF President Ray Gifford, Vice President for Research Tom Lenard and Director of PFF's Center for the Study of Digital Property James DeLong will participate in both conferences. Fellows attending will also be reporting their impressions of the conference on the Digital Americas blog. Agendas and complete panelist rosters are available on the Digital Americas section of the PFF website.

"Intellectual property protection is directly linked to economic development. As innovators in Argentina and Brazil benefit from IP protection, the economies of those countries will benefit as well," stated Gifford. "We look forward to partnering with new friends in South America who share our belief that the best approach for economic development in the Digital Age is to rely on the creativity of private companies acting within free markets, with governments playing their classic role of defining and enforcing property rights and protecting the integrity of the market."

PFF's trip to South America will be the third international conference organized by the Foundation. PFF has twice held Digital Europe events, in Milan and Brussels in February of 2005 and in Prague this past January. The Foundation is also organizing a third Digital Europe conference in Lake Como, Italy. In organizing these events abroad, PFF is building on its eleven-year track record in hosting the Aspen Summit, its annual gathering of the digital world's most prominent business leaders, probing thinkers and influential policymakers.

Those wishing to attend the conferences in Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo may contact Eileen Goulding of The Progress & Freedom Foundation at 202-289-8928 or egoulding@pff.org. More information is available on the PFF website.

ESEADE was founded in 1978 as an autonomous institution dedicated to teaching business administration, economics, finance and political science. Today ESEADE is a University Institute recognized by the Argentine Department of Education. ABPI is a non-profit founded in 1963 that studies intellectual property in the context of legislation and jurisprudence.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.

 

 

The Progress & Freedom Foundation