LaLiga defends its view on piracy during the Summer Courses in El Escorial

The Summer Courses at the Universidad Complutense in El Escorial (Madrid) hosted a round table this Monday 6th of July, entitled "Protection of industrial and intellectual property. Education and sensitization against vulnerability of copyrights", where numerous experts, key among which was the director of strategic development in LaLiga, Ignacion Martinez Trujillo, analyzed the transformations and the new ecosystem that businesses connected to industrial and intellectual property rights have to adapt to avoid piracy.

The moderator of the table, Manuel Desantes, from the University of Alicante was present accompanied by experts such as Luis Berenguer, members of the cabinet of the president of the Office for the Harmonization of the Internal Market; Mario Tascon, journalist and advisor of Atresmedia; Esperanza Ibanez; manager of Policies and Public Affairs for Google Spain and Portugal; Patricia Garcia Escudero, General director of the Spanish Office of Patents and Trademarks.

The vice-president of the Supreme Court, Angel Juanes, was in charge of opening the session with a presentation in which he explained the conditions wherein there existed an actionable cause in relation to Intellectual property rights. “According to the Penal Code, there must be a lack of authorization, for profit usage and foreknowledge of illegality of action on the part of the individual”, he stressed. He pointed out that, in various occasions "the country that does not protect its intellectual property rights grows poorer".

Just as the representative of the round table Ignacion Martinez Trujillo explained, the fight against piracy and forgery is a question that affects all sectors of the society and, among them, football. "LaLiga and Spanish football make up an industry that reaches the whole world as a Spanish trademark and forms a part of our economy, contributing 0.75% of GDP: This is why we must defend that we are a sector that generates wealth and has to fight against piracy, keeping in mind how the public prefers to consume" he emphasized.

On this point, the director of strategic development of LaLiga assured that when the world is your market, as in the case of football, that reaches every corner of the planet, there is not sufficient legislation to give your product the protection it needs". In this sense, he anticipated that LaLiga is "Initiating a project with the United States to make an agreement, a convergence of interests, between businesses and the leagues that want to fight against providers of pirated materials".

Among the objectives of the round table was also to study and propose new ways to coordinate the global strategic value of the intellectual property with the new opportunities for growth as well as economic, social and cultural development of our information society. Along these lines and by using several examples of television commercials developed by Atresmedia, Mario Tascon assured that “the tax system doesn't work when it comes to increase awareness".

This is one of the unresolved matters of the organizations and the Society in the field of piracy and forgery, just as the experts assured at the end of the round table. "57% of young Europeans between 15 and 24 consider illegal downloading from the internet acceptable. This demonstrates to us that there is a problem of sensitization which, at the same time, is subject to Law", affirmed Luis Berenguer.