For Immediate Release

Contact: Judith Platt/Deidre Huntington

Ph: 202-220-4551/202-220-4550

Publishers Applaud Attention to World Intellectual Property Day

Washington, DC, April 25, 2008:  The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is pleased to recognize April 26 as World Intellectual Property Day and joins other intellectual property owner groups as well as governments worldwide in highlighting the importance of encouraging creativity while protecting the intellectual property rights of creators.

World Intellectual Property Day is intended to raise awareness of the cultural and economic benefits provided by the copyright industries and to underline the importance of creativity to global economic development, health, and artistic achievement. Those benefits are jeopardized when piracy stifles creative growth.  According to industry estimates, the theft of intellectual property cost U.S. book publishers over $500 million in 2007, in just a few selected markets, resulting from commercial scale photocopying, illegal print runs, unauthorized translations and CD-R burning of text.  Internet piracy, which the industry has to date not tried to quantify, is a growing menace, and publishers have increased their efforts to combat this global problem over the past year.  

AAP President and CEO Pat Schroeder said; “Intellectual property protection is one of the most important issues facing American book and journal publishers today, and World Intellectual Property Day highlights that fact.  This is an issue that brings us together--across borders, industry sectors, and the political spectrum. We applaud the attention that this day brings to this vital issue.”    

The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies—small and large. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services.  The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.

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