It was a welcome convergence of messages Tuesday as the Obama Administration’s key point person for intellectual property emphasized the same point being made by a bipartisan coalition of U.S. Senators on Capitol Hill — something must be done to cut off the flow of illicit profits to web sites, often offshore, that are profiting [...]

Independent filmmaker Ellen Seidler of Fast Girl Films used loans and credit cards to finance a $250,000 motion picture, And Then Came Lola. But as she explains on the film’s web site, her film has appeared all over the Internet on pirate sites profiting from her film through the use of online advertising: It seems [...]

Thursday featured many Obama Administration officials speaking strongly about the importance of copyright enforcement at an event sponsored by the U.S. Commerce Department, but enforcement actions on Wednesday by the Administration spoke even louder than words. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other state and federal agencies, with the new “Operation in our Sites,” cut [...]

As we noted at the time, yesterday was first-of-its-kind comprehensive strategic intellectual property enforcement plan, prepared by a White House team in the Obama Administration led by U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel. It’s a pretty broad report, and lots of people are pouring through it, but we were pleased to be a part [...]

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was in a car accident in Dallas earlier today, the USTR Office has annnounced. Fortunately, it appears the injuries were minor, but he will be staying for now with his family in Dallas. Also fortunately, it appears no one was seriously injured in the accident. USTR Kirk is a great [...]

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about Shepard Fairey, the breaks-the-rules-and-boasts-of-it visual artist who is locked in a legal battle with the Associated Press over whether his use of an AP photo of Barack Obama to create the iconic red-and-blue image of the then-presidential candidate was copyright infringement. Well, the judge in the case has [...]

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama recently reiterated the critical role trade plays in the U.S. economy and job creation and growth by issuing a Presidential Proclamation declaring May 16-22nd, 2010, World Trade Week (see the proclamation on the White House web site). We’re honoring World Trade Week by being honored with an interview with Assistant [...]

When the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator received personal letters in the thousands from artists and creators across the U.S. in late March, that was noteworthy. Many of those artists are Copyright Alliance grassroots members, and we were as pleased as they were that the Obama Administration encouraged comments as the USIPEC develops a national [...]

WASHINGTON — This morning the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus announced its “2010 International Anti-Piracy Watch List,” the nations that leading members of Congress will focus on in the coming year in terms of improving the protection of U.S. rights owners of intellectual property. As was the case last year, the five nations being watched are [...]

Kudos to the White House for posting hundreds and hundreds of comments online in response to the call by Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, for guidance on how to improve enforcement of IP rights. You can see them here. I’d direct your attention to our filing, because even though we already have [...]