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.
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