News

The IPR Center Report

Partners in Action

Volume 2: No. 1 • March 2009

Trade Agreements and Compliance

The Office of Intellectual Property Rights (OIPR) is located in the Trade Agreements and Compliance area of International Trade Administration’s Market Access and Compliance unit. OIPR’s work is divided among two broad areas: developing and coordinating the department’s activities on intellectual property rights (IPR) trade policy, and assisting companies in protecting and enforcing their IPR overseas. OIPR responds to inquiries, and develops trade programs and tools to help U.S. businesses and citizens protect and enforce their IPR in foreign markets.

Trade Policy: Analysis, Negotiations, Agreement Implementation and Compliance, Cooperative Dialogues—OIPR supports the development of IPR working groups in multilateral and bilateral trade dialogue in order to encourage our trading partners to recognize the link between IPR and innovation, improve their IPR regimes, and develop programs and solutions to the global problem of counterfeiting and piracy. OIPR works with regional and industry offices within the Department of Commerce, other U.S. government agencies and U.S. industry. OIPR also monitors foreign governments’ implementation of, and compliance with, international trade agreements, and participates in/leads regional/bilateral cooperative dialogues pertaining to IPR.

Helping Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Overcome IPR Protection and Enforcement Concerns—OIPR has undertaken numerous activities to assist SMEs in protecting IPR, both in the United States and abroad. OIPR works with regional and industry offices within the Department of Commerce, commercial service staff in embassies abroad, in our more than 100 domestic U.S. Export Assistant Centers, and in other U.S. government agencies to disseminate information and tools for SMEs, and address specific IPR concerns adversely affecting U.S. businesses:

• www.StopFakes.gov and STOP! Hot-line: OIPR helps companies overcome problems protecting and enforcing their IPR overseas by responding to inquiries through the Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP) hotline and working with companies that contact OIPR directly.
• Country IPR Toolkits: Country toolkits have been posted on embassy Web sites and on www.StopFakes.gov that contain detailed information on protecting IPR in Brazil, Brunei, China, Egypt, European Union, India, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• International IPR Advisory Program: OIPR established a program with the American Bar Association through which American SMEs can request a free, one-hour consultation with a volunteer attorney knowledgeable about IPR issues and a particular country to learn how to protect and enforce their IPR, such as trademarks, patents or copyrights in that country. Expertise is available for Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Russia, and Thailand.
• Online IPR Training Module: OIPR worked with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Small Business Administration and Foreign Commercial Service to develop an online training program for SMEs to learn how to evaluate, protect and enforce their IPR.The program is available free online at www.StopFakes.gov. OIPR is currently having the module translated into Spanish and French to broaden domestic and foreign outreach.