The protection of intellectual property is strongly linked to international...
The protection of intellectual property is strongly linked to international trade, said Stan McCoy, assistant IP trade representative for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “American intellectual property is an American export,” just as much food, software and computers,…
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and “there’s a huge appetite for it around the world,” he said at an Institute for Policy Innovation event. IP is critical to “the kind of innovation we need to build a 21st century clean energy economy,” McCoy said, and IP theft pollutes the “ecosystem of creativity and innovation.” A trade policy is necessary to find ways to advance the protection of that ecosystem and to stop the pollution, he said. The USTR’s Special 301 reports are being used “to issue an open invitation to any trading partner on our Special 301 watch list to negotiate an action plan that could, if successful, provide a road map for their removal from the relevant list.” The office is working with New Zealand and other countries to negotiate the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, “which will set a new standard internationally for the enforcement of IP rights,” he added. Effective free trade agreements and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are essential, said Mike Moore, New Zealand’s ambassador to the U.S. A TPP agreement should include the elimination of tariffs on goods and globalization of trade and services, he said. “We need rules to allow the next generation of Google, Yahoo, eBay … to develop and flourish.”