Professor Andy Pratt had a busy week (10-16 June 2012) when he visited Ecuador and Paraguay at the invitation of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and UNESCO funded local organisation that promotes authors rights Centro Regional para el Formento del Libro an America Latina el Caribe, (CERLALC).
Andy began in Quito, which is a UENSCO world heritage site, and the highest capital city in the world! He spoke on cultural industries mapping and evidence-based policy, and on policies and processes of developing local creative industries; he was welcomed by the Ecuadorian Minister for Culture and the Instituto Ecuatoriano de la propiedad intellectual (IEPI).
Next Andy, Dimiter Gantchev (sub-director of the Creative Industries section at WIPO, Geneva) and Monica Torres (sub-director of Authors Rights at CERLALC, based in Colombia) moved onto Asuncion where they were also guests of the Minster of Culture for Paraguay, and as in Quito, they spoke to policy makers and artists over a two day meeting about the challenges of intellectual property and copyright in the creative economy.
