North Carolina Leader Honored for IP Enforcement Excellence

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall earned the U.S. Chamber Award for Excellence in IP Enforcement for her leadership in the fight against counterfeit goods during an IP Champions ceremony. Driven by economic concerns, Secretary Marshall created the Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force in 2004, which grew from one agent to 150 members, handling 7,500+ cases and seizing $200+ million in fake goods.

Intellectual property (IP) protections are the backbone of innovation and creativity, fueling overall economic growth. Leaders at the forefront of IP advocacy and policy pave the way for vital innovative and creative ecosystems to flourish. Each year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognizes a handful of these leaders during the IP Champions reception.

Following this year’s event, the Global Innovation Policy Center is celebrating awardees through a dynamic series of conversations. These discussions delve into the transformative impact of intellectual property, the driving forces behind their advocacy, and their inspiring visions for the future of innovation and creativity. This article is the third in a series of five IP award winner features.

We spoke with Secretary Marshall about her role in championing strong IP protections, the most urgent challenges facing the intellectual property landscape today, and the role of the private sector in promoting robust intellectual property rights.

Note: The answers are the views of the interviewed and don’t necessarily reflect the official positions of the U.S. Chamber.

What sparked your passion or inspired you to become an intellectual property rights champion?

What brought this problem home for me in my first term as Secretary of State was the economic danger it poses. I'm from "small-town North Carolina." It's not Mayberry (for those who are old enough to get that reference), but you get the picture. For decades, North Carolina relied on two industries as major drivers of the economy– agriculture and manufacturing. I personally know many people who lost their manufacturing jobs as the global economy moved those jobs overseas. That kind of change is tough to take even when the change is legal. It's something else entirely when criminals are costing us even more jobs by making, importing, and selling fake goods that cut the demand for the real brand name products – when it becomes illegal competition. Add in the urgent consumer health and safety concerns presented by so many counterfeit products and the importance of championing intellectual property rights becomes crystal clear.

Can you share a specific project or initiative that you believe has made a significant impact on intellectual property?

In 2004, I established the Secretary of State’s Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force with one agent and a handful of other members from local law enforcement. The Task Force is 150 members strong today and has become an incredible force multiplier. Interagency cooperation is the heart and soul of the Task Force’s work. That interagency cooperation has helped us work more than 7,500 cases and take more than $200 million in counterfeited goods off the streets across North Carolina.

An operation that comes to mind is the international air bag case that has taken hundreds of counterfeit airbags off the marketplace.

We worked closely with international and federal partners that led to sentences for a North Carolina resident and several in England.

What role do you believe collaboration plays in advancing intellectual property initiatives, and can you share an example of a successful partnership you’ve been involved in?

It would be impossible to overstate the importance of collaboration. Along with the work of our Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force that I just referenced, North Carolina was the first state in the nation to team up with the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies in 2017. The Center created its own website search engine (verifybeforeyoubuy.org) to make it easy to check any online pharmacy to find out if it is legitimately allowed to do business in the United States. That’s vital information, because about 97 percent of them are not. That means regulators have no way of determining how much of what those pharmacies are selling is actually counterfeit and dangerous.

In your opinion, what are the biggest and most urgent challenges facing the intellectual property landscape today, and how can champions like you tackle these challenges?

Keeping up with the rapid evolution of technology is a continuing challenge, making it more important than ever to leverage our resources and continue growing effective partnerships like the North Carolina Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force. And we can never forget the importance of public education to make sure that consumers and the media never lose sight of what’s at stake in terms of consumer health and safety, as well as our economy.

How can private sector voices collaborate more effectively with the government and your office to promote robust intellectual property rights?

We’ve developed great working partnerships with private industry stakeholders. It’s essential to continue strengthening state, federal and local alliances and fostering closer ties between the private sector, government and universities in the race to keep up with the technological innovation we need to protect intellectual property and consumers.

About the author

Jaci McDole

Jaci McDole is Senior Director of Copyright and Creativity for the Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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