White House Embraces Voluntary Approach to Deter Copyright Infringement
The White House said it will pursue voluntary incentives to reduce the infringement of online intellectual property in its annual IP report released Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/11OIqwc). The shift towards a more industry-based approach to curbing online piracy and IP theft marks a departure from the administration’s 2012 report, which scolded Congress for making little headway on new IP legislation (CD April 2/12 p6). Lawmakers failed to approve online copyright legislation like the Stop Online Piracy Act, PROTECT IP Act and the OPEN Act in the last session of Congress due to public opposition drummed up by coordinated website blackouts (CD Jan 19/12 p4).
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U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) Victoria Espinel said the administration will focus on infringement that has a “significant impact on the economy, the global economic competitiveness of the United States, the security of our nation and the health and safety of the American public.” Enforcement officials also plan to focus on the “troubling patent litigation tactics that present a significant and growing challenge to innovation,” the report said. Earlier this month, the White House announced a series of executive actions and legislative recommendations specifically designed to deal with abusive patent litigation (CD June 5 p1).
Private sector companies have already adopted best practices to curb online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods, the report said. Voluntary efforts that “expand the reach of legitimate alternatives to infringement, including through the development of copyright registries and online databases, micro-licensing arrangements, and other market-driven mechanisms” are an effective way to curb copyright theft, it said. Espinel did not discuss any pending congressional legislation related to online piracy other than to say the administration will “review our domestic legislation to make sure it is effective and up-to-date,” in a blog post Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/16OEEs5). Congress has only been able to enact seven of the administration’s 20 IP legislative recommendations since 2010, including modest laws to penalize the sale of counterfeit goods to the military and increase penalties for economic espionage and trafficking in counterfeit drugs, the report said. The report also touted increased enforcement of copyright infringement crimes and increased investigations into theft of trade secrets and customs seizures of infringing imports.
Espinel will chair a new interagency effort with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) aimed at “strengthening the processes that CBP uses with regard to enforcement of ITC exclusion orders pertaining to intellectual property,” the report said. Within six months the newly formed group will offer recommendations about how to improve the effectiveness and transparency of the ITC’s exclusion orders and CPB’s enforcement activities, the report said.
NTIA will work with stakeholders to ensure that ICANN’s new generic top-level domains provide “meaningful” IP protections and mitigate abuses in the domain name registration system, the report said. NTIA will do so by closely monitoring the effectiveness of the rights protection mechanisms and to “seek necessary course corrections” for affected U.S. stakeholders, it said.
The government will lead by example by securing its global supply chain from counterfeit items and ensuring compliance with the terms and licensing agreements of any software used by federal agencies, the report said. The administration plans to release its final “Strategy in Counterfeits in the U.S. Government Supply Chain” report later this year. IPEC and State Department officials will continue to work with G-8 governments to adhere to their commitments regarding counterfeits in government supply chains, the report said.
Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of intellectual property and enforcement for the Software and Information Industry Association, said he was disappointed the administration’s plan does not address content compliance, in a news release. “We have pushed the administration to act on both software and content compliance, and will continue to seek executive action that includes content,” he said.
MPAA CEO Chris Dodd said he “welcomed the important steps” the administration has taken but said “there is much more to be done to ensure an environment in which American creativity and innovation can truly flourish,” in a news release Thursday. “We share with this administration a commitment to promoting and protecting American intellectual property by opening new markets to U.S. products, educating the public about both the value of IP industries and the damage done by theft from those industries and encouraging voluntary best practices among private sector companies that have key responsibilities in the Internet landscape,” he said.