Middle Easterners seek to reassure show biz firms on copyright hassle.

Some Middle Easterners visited L.A. recently to discuss how to better protect the American entertainment industry from rampant copyright and trademark infringements in their countries.

A copyright protects, for a limited time, against the copying of original literary and artistic expressions, including movies and musical recordings. Trademark rights protect against the reproduction of commercial identifications, such as words, designs, slogans or symbols.

U.S. copyright and trademark protection laws are not valid in the Middle East. Rather, international laws stipulated in three treaties signed by most developed countries and many underdeveloped nations govern protection of copyrights and trademarks there. The treaties are the Universal Copyright Convention, Paris Treaty and Madrid Treaty.

Piracy of American movies and music, or the copying of such work without authorization, along with trademark infringements, are widespread in the Middle East, said Jasim Alazzawi, the group's escort and interpreter.

The visiting group consisted of seven representatives of government agencies from as many Middle Eastern nations. From July 6 to Aug. 6, the group traveled around the United States discussing the protection of American intellectual property rights in their countries.

The group spent July 23-28 in Los Angeles, focusing on protecting the copyrights and trademarks held by members of the entertainment industry. The representatives were from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.

Foreign nationals and expatriates from Thailand and India set up operations in Middle Eastern countries and produce large amounts of pirated cassettes and videos for export to the Far East, Alazzawi explained. They are able to get away with it because the current laws prohibiting piracy in the Middle East are lax and not stringently enforced, he said.

The U.S. entertainment industry lost $122 million due to pirating of motion pictures in the Middle East during 1993, and $155 million due to pirating of music, according to statistics compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based International Intellectual Property Alliance, a coalition that aims to protect intellectual property rights.

Piracy is not as rampant in the Middle East as it is in Asia, however, said Anthony Keats, a partner specializing in intellectual property rights with the downtown L.A.-based law firm Baker & Hostetler.

In Asia there is much more production potential and Asia is a much bigger market for consumer goods, he said. The group visited Keats on their visit.

The United States "has the most developed copyright law in the world, but to people in the Middle East, it is completely foreign," Keats added.

For example, in the U.S., someone other than the creator of the work could be the owner of a copyright. It could, for instance, be the movie studio or the record company that produces it, he said.

But in the Middle East, "if you created the work, you're the owner for all purposes," he said.

One member of the visiting group, Fawwaz Abd-Allah Danish, said he was surprised at the importance Americans place on the protection of intellectual property rights in general.

Danish is the legal adviser to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, Saudi Arabia's chamber of commerce. The most outspoken of the group, he said when he returns to Saudi Arabia, he plans to focus at the chamber on intellectual property law and link up with Saudi companies and law firms to deal with the issue.

He added that he plans to develop a special section in the chamber's library solely dealing with intellectual property rights.

The group also met with representatives from the American Film Marketing Association, a West L.A.-based organization representing 115 independent producers and distributors. Association members told the group about a service the association offers that could help prevent pirating in their countries, said Melanie Moen, director of legal affairs for the association.

The Middle Eastern governments can provide the association with the titles of films being imported from the U.S. into their countries. Within 24 hours, free of charge, the association can tell the government officials whether the film is authorized to be copied or not.

And, if the association doesn't recognize the title, it will send the name to the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the seven major studios, Moen said.

Danish said it should be the responsibility of the American studios to protect themselves from piracy in the Middle East, and not the responsibility of local governments.

The studios should establish offices in the Middle Eastern countries to monitor enforcement of the local laws, Fawwaz said.

Although pirating is now widespread in the Middle East, countries there are actually making some progress toward cracking down, Alazzawi said.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries are implementing a new law Jan. 1, 1995, mandating that anyone who pirates material on a mass basis will be fined and put in jail, Alazzawi said. The Gulf Cooperation Council countries consist of Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

Before, there were no jail sentences for those caught pirating in these countries, and fines usually didn't exceed $2,000, he said.

The law states that companies wanting to copy American products will have to reach agreements with American companies and pay royalties to them, he said.