From the beginning, the Association has organized and participated in a great number of meetings, from small informal get-togethers at the United States Consulate to lectures offered by Association members, to larger events such as the series of conferences on Piracy and Intellectual Property Rights.
In 2001, 2002 and 2004, at the request of the American Embassy in Rome and in close collaboration with the U.S. Consulate in Florence, the Region of Tuscany, the City of Florence and the Florentine Chamber of Commerce, the Tuscan-American Association organized major conferences on the extremely topical and serious issue of the protection of copyrights and patents against the piracy of audiovisual merchandise and the commercial counterfeiting of brand-name products. Highly respected Italian and American experts spoke on this subject at these conferences, which were attended by representatives of the Judiciary, the Carabinieri, the State, Tax and Municipal Police Forces, as well as by representatives of various sectors of the economy directly or indirectly involved in these issues.
Another series of conferences on this topic was held, during school hours, in different middle and high schools in Florence in order to raise young people’s awareness of the serious social and economic consequences of counterfeiting and piracy and of the even more dangerous repercussions from the involvement of organized crime in this sector.
In today’s world of globalization, no culture and no nation can afford to ignore the issue of protecting intellectual property; each country’s individual cultural heritage, inventiveness and ideas must be defended and respected as fundamental values in modern society.
Professional Women’s Committee
