The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has called on the government to tackle India's high rates of piracy by establishing fast-track IP courts to deal with piracy-related cases. In the meantime, Nasscom and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) have launched India's first anti-piracy toll-free hotline to encourage people to report cases of software piracy.

Software piracy in India has become almost impossible to curb. According to a study carried out by the BSA, piracy levels in India stand at nearly 73% and resulted in the losses of $367 million during 2004. The Asia-Pacific average is 53%, while the worldwide average is about 36%. Countries such as Canada and the United States have rates as low as 23%.

The new anti-piracy hotline is just the latest in a series of initiatives from the BSA and Nasscom. These include advertising campaigns, and seminars and workshops to generate awareness about the issues surrounding piracy (for details of other anti-piracy initiatives, see New actions prove India's anti-piracy commitments and India continues anti-piracy fight with specialist crime unit).

It remains to be seen whether the Indian government will act on Nasscom's proposal to establish specialist IP courts. In order for such courts to be effective, their creation would have to be accompanied by the appointment of specialized IP judges. There is also an urgent need to create awareness and conduct training programmes for police officers and law enforcement authorities in order to help them understand and tackle issues of piracy.

In related news, Japan has established its IP High Court, which will hear appeals on IP disputes referred to it by the Tokyo and Osaka district courts (see Japan sets up IP high court and amends IP laws). Cases involving a range of technical fields will be handled by a 'grand panel' attended by the chief judges of four specialized divisions. The new court, with a total of 18 judges, is expected to handle more than 700 IP cases a year.

For further details of IP courts in other jurisdictions, see IBA survey looks at pros and cons of specialized IP courts, Spain sets up new commercial courts for IP matters, Backlog of IP cases forces government to consider specialized court and Specialist courts established to decide Italian IP cases.

Gowree Gokhale and Prerak Hora, Nishith Desai Associates, Mumbai.