Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I was pleasantly surprised—perhaps the word pleasantly is not quite accurate, but yes, I was surprised—by what Mr. Geist said a little earlier, namely that there is no international remedy for intellectual property infringement.
That is a huge problem. I don't know how we will solve it. I listened to all three witnesses. We may have legislative frameworks, emergency measures, stronger border enforcement, patents, etc.
You also referred to a “minimum mandatory threshold with judicial discretion to increase the amount of pre-established damages”.
What can really be done to help these people? In your opinion, what is the total amount of losses each year in Canada due to intellectual property infringement? How much money do Canadian companies lose?
Next, how can we best protect these businesses? Do we have to go to the source? Should we turn to the businesses or to the stores which sell these products? Where does the solution lie?
Based on my understanding of what you said, there is no silver bullet, but where should we begin to address the problem? We may not get rid of it entirely, because I gather that it is fairly frustrating because there is no single guilty party. I wonder where we could start to help businesses protect their intellectual property rights.
I would like to hear all three witnesses on this point. What is the best solution? What is the best approach to put an end to the problem or, at the very least, lessen its impact?