Customs and Border Protection needs more authority to combat counterfeiters, the Senate Finance Committee was told. Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner in CBP's Office of Trade, said it will take a few months of consultation with the private sector to say what kind of authority. Ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed for a deadline, and when Smith demurred, asked her to report back within 60 days. "I will do my best," she responded. Smith said Congress might also need to increase penalties for counterfeit goods. Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told her, "We'll see what we can do to back you up and help you." The hearing highlighted a recent GAO report that 20 of 47 items ordered by auditors from online sellers were counterfeit (see 1803060042). CBP reported that intellectual property rights seizures rose again in FY 2017, though the dollar value fell. Wyden noted solving the counterfeiting issue "isn’t going to be as simple as putting a few more policy tools in CBP’s kit." Agency hiring difficulties hurt its ability to protect "U.S. consumers and businesses from illegal and unfairly traded goods," he said: "The internet has transformed" commerce and "CBP is too often playing catch-up ball tracking these fake products down." Smith said "the scope of the challenge is tremendous." Cooperation from package shippers is improving, she told senators. The agency receives advance electronic data from Chinese and Hong Kong mail services; 88 percent of counterfeits originate from those locales.

Customs and Border Protection should consider sharing IP data with the private sector to combat the market for counterfeit goods, the availability of which has grown with the emergence of e-commerce, GAO said Tuesday. After recently buying 47 items through third-party sellers on popular consumer websites, GAO found that 20 of the items were counterfeit. It recommended CBP consult with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine what, if any, information could be beneficial to the private sector. CBP should analyze whether there's a need for regulatory revisions or additional legal authority granted by Congress, GAO said.

CTA President Gary Shapiro criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on all foreign steel imports and a 10 percent duty on foreign aluminum, in a pair of Friday tweets. “Top foreign steel and aluminum suppliers -- NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico and KORUS partner S. Korea -- don’t pose national security threat, but retaliation could,” Shapiro tweeted. The proposed “25% tariff on steel poses threat to U.S. trade, economic security, U.S. manufacturing and consumer pricing,” Shapiro tweeted seconds later. National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay agrees the tariffs would be “a tax on American families,” he said in a Thursday statement. “When costs of raw materials like steel and aluminum are artificially driven up, all Americans ultimately foot the bill in the form of higher prices for everything from canned goods to electronics and automobiles. The reality is that there is nothing this country will gain from such a one-sided policy. These tariffs threaten to destroy more U.S. jobs than they will create while sending an alarming signal to our trading partners and diminishing markets for American-made products overseas." Trump doesn’t fear a trade war, he tweeted in the wee hours of Friday morning. “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,” he said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative plans a hearing March 8 on its “Special 301” investigation of foreign countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair market access to U.S. citizens who rely on IP protection, it said in Thursday's Federal Register. The hearing had tentatively been set for Tuesday. Post-hearing briefs are now due March 14, it said. USTR’s Special 301 report is still set for publication around April 30. Friday, USTR didn't have for us more details of the hearing at 1724 F St. NW, Rooms 1 and 2.

Rovi filed another Section 337 complaint alleging Comcast set-top boxes are infringing its patents. Rovi said the Comcast X1 DVR and related hardware and software, including interactive program guide software, voice remote controls and remote apps, copy its patented technologies. Model numbers identified in the complaint include the brand names Arris, Pace, Cisco, Humax and Samsung. The ITC recently issued a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against Comcast in a related investigation, requested by Rovi, that covered different patents. Comments on the second complaint are due to the ITC by Thursday.

A "new threat" to IP-intensive music and film industries is emerging in copyright trade talks, said a letter that 37 groups, including MPAA and creative groups, sent Monday to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking America's negotiators to ignore voices backing "vast new immunities" for online services. "If these anti-IP voices succeed, they will turn long-standing trade policy, with creativity and innovation at its core, on its head by transforming our trade agreements into blueprints for how to evade liability for IP theft," they said. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, BMI, Digital Media Licensing Association, News Media Alliance, SoundExchange and others asked the U.S. to "chart a pro-IP course." NAFTA delegates and policymakers "shouldn't be fooled by Hollywood rhetoric," responded Joshua Lamel, Re:Create Coalition executive director. "The gatekeepers of the entertainment industry claim to represent ‘creators' yet they routinely ignore the interests of millions of bloggers, podcasters, internet video stars and Etsy artisans who rely on balanced copyright provisions to utilize online platforms," he said in a statement. “Fair use and safe harbors are essential parts of the American intellectual property framework and actually make IP stronger. If NAFTA covers intellectual property, fair use and safe harbors must be explicitly included."

Maersk and IBM will form a joint venture to "provide more efficient and secure methods for conducting global trade using blockchain technology," blogged the venture's CEO-designate Michael White Tuesday. The new company will work to develop a platform to "provide end-to-end supply chain visibility that enables all actors involved in a global shipping transaction to securely and seamlessly exchange shipment events in real time," it said of the technology also undergirding virtual currencies: The platform also will "digitize and automate paperwork filings for the import and export of goods by enabling end users to securely submit, stamp and approve documents across national and organizational boundaries." Customs and Border Protection, also working on blockchain (see 1708250025), and DuPont are among those that have piloted the platform, wrote White.

CTA, General Electric and nearly 400 companies and trade groups signed a Thursday letter to congressional leadership asking for a quick Generalized System of Preferences program renewal. "The sooner it happens," the sooner "tariffs paid already are refunded," they said after Dec. 31 expiration of GSP, resulting in American employers now paying "over $2 million per day in new import taxes." The U.S. Trade Representative website says "GSP promotes economic development by eliminating duties on thousands of products when imported from one of 120 [of the world's poorest] designated beneficiary countries and territories."

Federal intellectual property enforcement prosecutors are working in five “critical” regions to counter illegal trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, DOJ announced Friday. DOJ and the State Department jointly manage the IP enforcement program, which was established in 2006, and now has on-the-ground prosecutors in Abuja, Nigeria; Bucharest, Romania; São Paulo, Brazil; Bangkok; and Hong Kong.

December imports at major retail container ports in the U.S. are expected to increase 1.5 percent compared with December a year ago, suggesting that retailers are restocking in preparation for the holiday selling season’s “final days,” said the National Retail Federation Friday in its monthly tracker report. With the expected December rise in imports, NRF forecasts the year “should end with a healthy 6.4 percent increase over 2016,” it said. “Retailers are doing last-minute restocking as consumers head toward the finish line of the shopping season, but the majority of holiday merchandise is already in the country and ports are beginning to quiet down.”