Software giant aims to find local heroes
Microsoft (Thailand) has cooperated with five organisations to roll out the "Local Hero" project, which aims to help local software companies build new capabilities to manage their intellectual property assets.
The five bodies are the Intellectual Property Department, the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa), the National Science and Technology Development Agency, the Association of Thai ICT Industry, and the Association of Thai Software Industry. Microsoft (Thailand) managing director Andrew McBean described Local Hero as a pilot project to generate greater understanding and enthusiasm for the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights among the software development community. The project is to provide strategic management skills and training programmes for local independent software vendors and to invest in resources, manuals and the sharing of industry expertise. It is a strategic capability-building programme that focuses on IP management and the value of IP commercialisation. The entire programme will run for 36 months. Initially, more than 600 independent software vendors were approached, of which around 50 will be selected for the comprehensive training sessions that will be run through the first three months of next year. The project is part of the Thailand.NET scheme, whose goal is to strengthen local software ecosystems. Microsoft has rolled out similar projects in Malaysia and the Philippines, where the company initiated and ran the schemes alone. In Thailand, it is working with local industry partners. Manoo Ordeedolchest, Sipa's director, said that for many software vendors, the patent process was difficult to comprehend. Meanwhile Thailand is trying to become a software supplier to the world and the challenge is how developers can export their software while protecting their intellectual property. The project will educate local software houses about IP and how to manage their own IP with the most efficiency. Patents and free-trade agreements are also on the agenda. "IP laws are important, not just for large companies, but for all inventors, no matter how small a company. What is great about the project is that it will give skill and support to local IT people so they can expand," said Manoo. According to the 2004 Piracy Study by the Business Software Alliance, 79 per cent of all software products in Thailand are illegally copied and sold. It estimated that a reduction in the current piracy rate to 69 per cent could help the country's IT industry to grow to US$4.5 billion (Bt169 billion) by 2009. For software companies, the financial impact of a weak IP rights environment can be a challenge and a detriment to growth.
asina@nationgroup.com
Asina Pornwasin The Nation
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