MUMBAI: The importance of protecting brands, trademarks, copyrights and patents was underlined at the two-day seminar on Intellectual Property Rights jointly organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) recently.

Leading speakers from the entertainment and corporate world and the judiciary spoke about the need to protect brands from illegal use and its implications on the society. And the first step to fight piracy, counterfeiting and duplication of brands is to bring about a drastic change in the mindset of consumers, the speakers said.

Filmmaker Kunal Kohli and celebrity and commercial photographer Atul Kasbekar, made an emotive appeal for a change in the way piracy is viewed and dealt with in India. According to Kohli, piracy should be considered as theft or cheating rather than ‘piracy’, which is a very mellow term.

Kasbekar said that piracy is more rampant in India and South East Asian countries because of the lack of awareness, apathy and the mindset of the people.