Intellectual Property Rights 

With the economy of the 21st century likely to focus increasingly on the creation and use of products of the mind, efforts to prevent illicit use of intellectual property will grow in importance. The emergence of the Internet and e-commerce will make some forms of intellectual property easier to use, but also easier to steal. As the United States is the largest producer of intellectual property in the world by far, it is incumbent upon the U.S. government to assume leadership in defending this vital class of property rights.

 

Many leading U.S. trade partners, including Argentina, China, and India, fail to provide adequate protection of copyrights, patents, and trademarks as such protection is defined by international conventions and World Trade Organization rules. The upshot is that a wide range of U.S. creators of intellectual property -- from software firms and pharmaceutical companies to movie studios and the recorded music industry -- lose billions of dollars a year in potential sales to piracy.
 
U.S. Chamber Position

 

We strongly advocate legislative and enforcement actions by our top trading partners to bar the theft of intellectual property created and owned by U.S. artists, researchers, and companies. The U.S. government should push our trading partners to uphold intellectual property rights, and countries that fail to do so should be subject to sanction under existing multilateral trade rules and bilateral accords.

 

For more information please visit  http://www.thetruecosts.org/.