There have been anecdotal reports that poor and dangerous working
conditions, sometimes involving child labor, are found to exist in facilities
where counterfeit and pirated goods are being manufactured overseas or in
illicit distribution networks. A deeper analysis of the issue would shed
greater light on the problem and provide an opportunity to strengthen our
engagement with foreign governments and improve efforts to combat manufacturing
and distribution of illicit counterfeit and pirated goods. In addition, the
resulting information could enhance public awareness of the direct connection
between purchasing infringing goods, supporting illicit businesses, and the
impact on working men and women across the globe. Going forward: DOS will begin
an examination of the nexus between unacceptable working conditions and the production
and distribution of counterfeit goods in certain countries. Further actions
will be considered depending upon the outcome of that examination.
It
will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Here is a list of the action items building on the 2010
Joint Strategic Plan (there are 26 including items included in the 2010 Joint
Strategic Plan):
1) Facilitate voluntary initiatives to reduce online
intellectual property infringement. IPEC will reach out to additional sectors
(which may include data storage services, domain name registrars, and search
engines) and will also encourage rightholders to adopt a set of best practices.
USPTO will start a process to assess the voluntary initiatives; 2) Conduct a
comprehensive review of domestic laws to determine needed legislative changes
to improve enforcement; 3) Support small
and medium-size enterprises in foreign markets. DOC will increase outreach and
support to such enterprises through nationwide educational efforts; 4) Evaluate the enforcement process of exclusion
orders issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). IPEC will chair
an interagency working group to improve the process for enforcement of Section
337/ITC exclusion orders; 5) Coordinate international capacity-building and
training. IPEC will reorganize the interagency working group on
capacity-building and training and embassies will follow up on a regular basis
with governments that receive training to evaluate results; 6) Improve
transparency in intellectual property policymaking. IPEC will look for
additional ways to hear concerns and gather input from a wide range of
stakeholders; 7) Improve law enforcement communication with stakeholders. DOJ and
ICE will look for additional ways to engage a broad range of stakeholders in an
effort to increase understanding of law enforcement operations and expand
stakeholder relationships; 8) Assess the
economic impact of intellectual property-intensive industries. DOC will issue
an annual report on the number of jobs and contribution to the GDP of such
industries; 9) Use legal software. IPEC,
with the Federal Procurement Policy Administrator and the U.S. Chief
Information Officer will review the mechanisms that agencies have in place in
order to share best practices and ensure legal use; 10) Examine labor conditions. DOS will examine
the relationship between unacceptable labor conditions and the manufacture and
distribution of counterfeits and take further action if necessary; 11) Improve IPR enforcement efficacy by
leveraging advanced technology and expertise. IPEC will chair an interagency
working group to identify and advance new and innovative technologies to
improve enforcement capabilities at the border. In addition, law enforcement
agencies will look for ways to engage outside technology experts and Internet
engineers to increase expertise on online enforcement approaches; 12) Increase focus on counterfeits shipped
through international mail and work with express carriers. CBP will work to
obtain advance data from international post operators and express carrier companies
to improve targeting; 13) Educate authors on “fair use” copyright doctrine. The
U.S. Copyright Office will summarize current law and provide general guidance
targeted to artists seeking to apply the law to their own situations; 14) Protect intellectual property at the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the FBI will work with
ICANN, in collaboration with stakeholders, so that new top-level domains do not
become new venues for infringement; and 15) Consider copyright and patent “small
claims” courts. The U.S. Copyright Office and USPTO are considering alternative
adjudicatory processes for hearing “small claims” cases brought by copyright
and patent holders.
There is also an interesting list
of government enforcement “successes” since 2010 and here is one of the items:
In April and May 2012, as a result
of investigations generated by the IPR Center led Operation In Our Sites, in
two separate cases ICE-HSI, working with DOJ, seized over $2 million in
proceeds from online sales of counterfeit goods by Chinese perpetrators. The
funds were seized from correspondent bank accounts located at the Bank of China
in New York under 18 U.S.C. § 981(k), which permits the U.S. Government to
seize funds from a foreign institution’s interbank accounts in the United
States for forfeiture to the Treasury. This was ICE-HSI’s first use of section
981(k) to seize illicitly-derived proceeds identified as part of an
intellectual property rights criminal investigation deposited in a Chinese
bank. . . . .
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