lpettet-istockphoto-com-trump-
30 October 2018

AIPLA 2018: IPEC commends Trump’s stance on IP

President Donald Trump’s designation of April 26 as World IP Day (in the US) is just one factor that speaks to the importance that he and his administration place on IP as a “driver of innovation and job creation”, an industry conference heard.

Vishal Amin, IP Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) at the White House, was speaking at the 2018 AIPLA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC last week.

Amin was confirmed in August last year, and was the first person to take the role under the Trump administration. The IPEC role was previously held by Daniel Marti under former US President Barack Obama.

This year marked the ten-year anniversary of the creation of the IPEC office in the White House.

“The Trump administration is working to promote strong IP rights protection and enforcement, both domestically and abroad, as part of an integrated approach,” said Amin.

He added: “America first does not mean America alone. As our economy grows so does the world’s, by creating a level playing field for our creators.”

Moving to discuss China, Amin explained that the country accounts for 87% of all seized counterfeit goods imported into the US. These are not just “hard goods”, but also copyright-protected content, while trade secret theft and forced technology transfer are also at play, he said.

These types of acts and policies are “neither sustainable nor acceptable”, which is why Trump is taking “bold action to defend American industry, creators and inventors and working to address these issues at their source”.

In March this year, Trump announced tariffs of up to $60 billion on China, in response to China’s alleged IP violations. China retaliated with its own set of tariffs and the trade war began.

Today, Reuters reported that Trump believes there will be “a great deal” with China on trade, but that if a deal isn’t possible, billions of dollars worth of new tariffs may follow.

The 2018 AIPLA Annual Meeting finished on Friday, October 26.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.

Today's top stories

US bans exports to Chinese firm amid IP litigation

Bloomberg triumphs against AI company in social media patent spat

Fabric supplier targets Zara in copyright complaint

US customs seizes Mercedes-Benz counterfeits

Allen & Overy IP team joins Kirkland & Ellis

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Patents
5 February 2019   Vishal Amin, US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, has heaped praise on US President Donald Trump’s approach to promoting and protecting American IP, in a report submitted to Congress.