I’m sounding like a broken record (kids, ask your parents, an audiophile or a club DJ what a record is), but one can’t ignore the focus President Obama and his Administration is placing on the importance of enforcing intellectual property law, in particular ensuring trading partners adhere to their commitments on IP enforcement in their [...]

While President Obama made many interesting points during his State of the Union address last night, I’d like to focus on his discussion of international trade. Obama made several key points: 1) Small business can be a growing part of trade, including entrepreneurs. 2) Americans can produce exports unrivaled by the rest of the world. [...]

Three cheers to the Obama Administration for hosting Tuesday at the White House a key jobs summit, one involving the jobs of creators and their collaborators in creation. The Associated Press quoted the host of the event, Vice president Joseph Biden, as saying of copyright piracy:
“This is flat unadulterated theft, and it should be dealt [...]

In rhetoric, there’s an old trick — begin with a true statement, and then follow with an argument that does not naturally follow from the true statement. When challenged, ignore the criticism of the argument and instead defend the true statement.
Here’s an example. True statement — “We’ll always have copyright infringement. You can never completely [...]

On Sunday night the venerable CBS news show “60 Minutes” did a segment on motion picture piracy. To those of us working actively in this space, it was pretty accurate but not new. It generalized a fair amount, but those of us with a journalism background understand this was a short segment targeting a [...]

WASHINGTON — First President Obama appoints a perfect individual to protect the rights of intellectual property owners around the world. Victoria Espinel, upon Senate confirmation, will be the nation’s first IP Enforcement Coordinator, a new statutory position resulting from the PRO-IP Act.
Today, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global [...]

When fighting for the rights of copyright owners it helps to have a sense of humor. I’m grateful that the Software and Information Industry Association* has shown one in their new video titled “Don’t Copy That 2″ — here’s a link to its home with other goodies and here’s the YouTube link — an update [...]

This is a busy week in Washington on the health care front, but IP issues keep popping up as well, like yesterday’s hearing on the dangers of P2P to another hearing yesterday, the confirmation hearing for David Kappos, the IBM veteran up for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director. He noted in his testimony that [...]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today, at a press conference at the Commerce Department, cited copyright industries as the “critical drivers” of economic growth, jobs and trade, while endorsing the latest study by the International Intellectual Property Alliance and economist Stephen E. Siwek, “Copyright Industries in the U.S. Economy: The 2003 - 2007 [...]

Five countries are under not only the scrutiny of the Obama administration for copyright infringement but also the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. Canada, China, Mexico, Russia and Spain stood out among many troublesome nations, according to today’s announcement by the bicameral, bipartisan caucus.
The announcement was held in the US Capitol and featured all four co-chairs [...]