Thursday, December 11, 2008 4:41 PM

U.S. Chamber Wants IP Czar In First 100 Days

By ANDREW NOYES, CongressDaily

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today urged President-elect Obama to set up the congressionally created White House position of intellectual property enforcement coordinator within his first 100 days. The coordinator would oversee governmentwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting efforts.

Funding for it was included in a broader IP bill sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and ranking member Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, along with Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio. President Bush signed the legislation in October.

The Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center lobbied hard for passage of the bill despite pushback from the Commerce and Justice departments, which objected to the IP czar being housed in the office of the president. On Capitol Hill, the Chamber will push appropriators to fully fund the $60 million per-year package. "Resources dedicated to IP enforcement return many times over the benefits both to the broader economy to increase jobs and to the public treasury," NBC General Counsel Rick Cotton said.

Cotton, who also chairs the IP center, said the Chamber will emphasize to members a study by Laura Tyson, a former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, which found every dollar spent on IP enforcement reaps $5 in increased tax payments to the government by moving consumption from counterfeit goods to legitimate products.

Passage and enactment of a Customs and Border Protection reauthorization bill to better address trafficking in illicit goods is another IP priority for the Chamber in 2009. The trade group is rallying support for legislation introduced in September by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, which would require the U.S. Trade Representative to develop an action plan for each country that remains on its "priority watch list" of IP offenders for at least a year.

Under the bill, if a country does not comply with its plan within a year, the president could ban federal government procurement from the nation in question and stop new financing by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank for projects in, or exports to, the foreign country. The legislation, which is expected to resurface in the 111th Congress, also requires placing IP attaches in the U.S. embassy of each country that has an important commercial relationship with the United States.

The Chamber will encourage Obama's USTR to conclude talks with major trading partners on an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The trade deal, which has been in the works for a year, has faced criticism from watchdog groups about the transparency of the process. The full text of the treaty remains secret, but a leaked summary indicated that it could include criminal measures; allow increased border search powers; and encourage Internet service providers to cooperate with copyright holders.

Furthermore, the Chamber wants changes made to streamline the Patent and Trademark Office, but it will not weigh in on legislation expected from leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees to overhaul the U.S. patent system. The Chamber's members are divided in their view of what changes need to be made to the regime. The business community agrees with 90 percent of what has been proposed in legislation that passed the House but stalled in the Senate this session, but there is huge disagreement over the remaining 10 percent, according to the IP center's president, David Hirschmann.