Bangkok--Jun 27--PC & Associates Consulting
Nation’s Leading Tech CEOs Meet With Cabinet Officials, Congressional Leaders to Promote Patent Reform, CAFTA Approval and Fight Cybercrime
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) hosted its 9th annual BSA CEO Forum, a two-day event that brings together the nation’s leading high tech chief executives to meet with cabinet members and congressional leaders.
The CEOs highlighted a number of recommendations and immediate and long-term legislative priorities affecting the technology industry and the global economy. Areas of discussion included: reforming the U.S. patent system to meet the needs of the digital economy; greater enforcement to combat software piracy and cybercrime; and passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and other needed trade measures.
Chief executives participating in the BSA CEO Forum included:
Bruce Chizen, Adobe
Carol Bartz, Autodesk
David Krall, Avid
Dale Fuller, Borland
Dominique Goupil, FileMaker
Tom Noonan, ISS
Stephen Elop, Macromedia
George Samenuk, McAfee
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
Art Coviello, RSA Security
Bill McDermott, SAP America
John McEleney, SolidWorks
John Chen, Sybase
“BSA impressed upon Members of Congress and administration officials the need to move quickly on a number of policies to secure the economic and societal benefits afforded by new innovative technologies and applications,” said Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of BSA. “Through sound public policies and public-private partnerships, we have achieved significant accomplishments that have helped to spur unprecedented economic growth. While today’s meetings touched on a number of challenges before government and industry, more importantly, we hope that they served to accelerate action on a host of opportunities set to benefit the U.S. economy and the global marketplace,” said Holleyman.
One of the top legislative priorities for BSA is patent reform. Patents are indispensable to technological innovation, and the CEOs strongly urged congressional leaders to take prompt action to reform the patent system to improve patent quality and address disruptions caused by excessive litigation. “Legislative reforms aimed at improving the quality of patents issued will reduce uncertainty for high tech companies and other industries,” said Holleyman. Reforming the existing patent system will also alleviate troublesome elements from patent litigation, resulting in a reduction of the costly and disruptive effects of abusive litigation practices.
As part of today’s Forum, the BSA CEOs issued to Members of Congress letters calling for the immediate passage of CAFTA. The CEOs also asked policymakers to continue progress in global trade talks, including the current Doha round of trade discussions at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
BSA’s trade priorities were released earlier this week in a new paper, Trade in the Digital Age, which spelled out the importance of barrier-free trade and the industry’s contributions to the U.S. and global economies, including generating a $21.5 billion trade surplus for the United States. The trade paper is the final installment of the CEO Initiative for the Future, announced at last year’s Forum. In addition to the trade paper, the project included a series of CEO-led initiatives on education, intellectual property protection and cybersecurity (www.bsa.org/ceoinitiative).
About BSA
The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. Its members represent one of the fastest growing industries in the world. BSA programs foster technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security, trade and e-commerce. BSA members include Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Bentley Systems, Borland, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, CNC Software/Mastercam, Dell, Entrust, HP, IBM, Intel, Internet Security Systems, Macromedia, McAfee, Microsoft, PTC, Phoenix Technologies Ltd., RSA Security, SAP, SolidWorks, Sybase, Symantec, The MathWorks, UGS and VERITAS Software.
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Pranee Chalermtanasak
PC & Associates Consulting Co., Ltd.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0 2971 3711 End.