Jobs Agenda: Intellectual Property

Priorities

The U.S. Chamber and its Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) believe that strong intellectual property rights are essential for creating jobs, saving lives, advancing global economic growth, and generating breakthrough solutions to global challenges.

The Facts

• America’s IP-intensive industries employ nearly 18 million workers—at all educational and skill levels—and represent 40% of the country’s economic growth.
• From 2000 to 2007, the annual salary of all workers in IP-intensive industries averaged about 60% more than similar workers in non-IP-intensive industries.
• IP-intensive industries account for approximately 60% of total U.S. exports—rising from $665 billion in 2000 to $910 billion in 2007.
• Protecting IP encourages research and development funding, which expands the economy and creates jobs. Industry spending on R&D in the United States from 2000 to 2007 accounts for approximately 72% of total R&D spending, totaling nearly $1.2 trillion, an average of $145 billion annually.

The U.S. Chamber’s Plan to Advance IP Policies That Promote Economic Growth and Job Creation

• Shut down rogue websites that sell counterfeit goods and facilitate digital theft.
• Increase the government’s ability to enforce IP laws/rights through additional funding for Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Justice; provide ample resources for the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator; enhance the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 process; and pass IP attaché legislation. 
• Deliver a first-ever governmentwide National IP Enforcement Strategy to increase America’s IP protection and enforcement efforts in the United States and abroad.
• Engage U.S. trading partners to curtail IP theft by concluding a plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, enhancing our strategic partnership with Europe, reforming inadequate IP practices in India and China, promoting strong IP rights in multilateral and bilateral forums, and countering anti-IP rhetoric.

To learn more, visit thegloabalipcenter.com.