The Department of Justice and other agencies are continually working to improve protections for intellectual property rights and the enforcement of intellectual property laws. You can find information on DOJ initiatives, summits, and speeches in this section. This section also contains information on U.S. interagency efforts, such as NIPLECC, as well as international efforts to protect intellectual property rights.
The Department of Justice has issued its first annual report pursuant to the Prioritizing Resources and Organization of Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-403. This report includes an overview of the actions the Department has taken to implement Title IV of the PRO IP Act, as well as a summary of the efforts, activities, and resources the Department has devoted to intellectual property enforcement over the past year and in the five years preceding enactment of the PRO IP Act.
These annual statistics contain summaries of available copyright and trademark statistics, segregated by statutory provision and preceded by a brief description of each offense. Also included are summaries of the overall totals and totals associated with matters and cases referred by the U.S. Customs Service to the U.S. Attorneys. Read the statistics via the link below. These statistics are part of the Attorney General's Annual Report, which can be found via the link below.
The National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinating Council (NIPLECC) is an interagency group, created in 1999, responsible for coordinating the United States' domestic and international intellectual property enforcement activities. NIPLECC is co-chaired by the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division and the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Other members included the Undersecretary of State for Economics, Business and Agricultural Affairs, the Deputy United States Trade Representative, the Commissioner of Customs and the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade.
Pursuant to the PRO-IP Act (see above), the statutory provision creating NIPLECC will be repealed and the interagency coordinating functions of NIPLECC will be superceded once an Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordination has been appointed and confirmed.
Since its creation, NIPLECC has issued a number of reports on the progress and status of U.S. IP enforcement efforts:
The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Training Database website is designed to provide information regarding international IPR training in coordination with the IPR Training Coordination Group, a group compromised of several United States Government agencies and industry associations involved in intellectual property rights enforcement.
On June 20, 2006, the Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales highlighted the results of the Progress Report of the Intellectual Property Task Force. At a speech before the United States Chamber of Commerce's Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy program today, he announced that the Task Force has fully implemented all 31 recommendations contained in its 2004 report, and in some cases, went well beyond those recommendations.
On April 21, 2004 David M. Israelite, Chairman of the Justice Department’s Intellectual Property Task Force, announced the names of those who will join him in serving on the task force, which was created by Attorney General John Ashcroft to examine all aspects of how the Department of Justice handles intellectual property issues and to develop recommendations for future efforts.
On March 9, 2004 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced the continuation of the Justice Department's Task Force on Intellectual Property and renewed the Department's commitment to aggressively enforce intellectual property laws. The Attorney General also named Kyle Sampson, Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General, as the new Chairman of the Task Force. Federal prosecutor Arif Alikhan was named Vice Chairman and Executive Director
On July 23, 1999, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Customs service announced the establishment of a law enforcement initiative aimed at combating the growing challenge of piracy and counterfeiting of intellectual property, both domestically and internationally. "At the same time that our information economy is soaring, so is intellectual property theft," said Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. "We are here to send the message that those who steal our intellectual property will be prosecuted. This is theft, pure and simple." Mr. Holder's remarks and a press release describing the announcement of the initiative may be accessed via the links below:
On September 11, 2000, the Department of Justice filed an amicus curiae brief in the case of A & M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. solely on the issue of whether Section 1008 of the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, 17 U.S.C. §1008, excuses Napster from liability for copyright infringement. A copy of that brief is accessible via the link below:
On February 20, 2000, the Department of Justice filed an a brief as an intervenor in the case of Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corely, on appeal from Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Reimerdes, 82 F. Supp. 2d 211 (S.D.N.Y. 2000), on three issues:
A copy of that brief is accessible via the link below:
On October 3, 2000, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Patricia Maher testified before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Commerce on the importation of counterfeit pharmaceutical products. Her testimony addresses the health and safety dangers of this practice and highlights some recent prosecutions.
On September 18-19, 2000, the United States sponsored the first-ever meeting of law enforcement experts from G-8 countries to discuss trends in trafficking in counterfeiting and pirated merchandise. Read a summary of the meetings from the link below.