Coordinator for International Intellectual
Property Enforcement
Fact Sheet

Background

On July 22, 2005, President Bush announced the creation of a senior position to help combat intellectual property (IP) violations. The Office of the Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement will be located at the Department of Commerce.

The establishment of this office reinforces the Bush Administration’s commitment to aggressively enforce intellectual property rights and will support ongoing Administration initiatives.

Coordinator of International Intellectual Property Enforcement

With guidance from Secretary Gutierrez, this office will focus entirely on coordinating and leveraging the resources within the federal government to protect U.S. intellectual property at home and abroad.

The Coordinator of International Intellectual Property Enforcement will focus on:

• Coordinating with relevant federal agencies such as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property; the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division; the Deputy United States Trade Representative; the Commissioner of Customs; the Undersecretary of State for Economics, Business and Agricultural Affairs; and the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade;
• Serving as the head of the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLECC),
• Developing policies to address international intellectual property violations and enforce intellectual property laws, and
• Implementing strategies for protecting American intellectual property overseas.

The Coordinator will accordingly play a significant role in the ongoing implementation of the Bush administration’s Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) Initiative launched in 2004.

STOP! is a U.S. government-wide initiative to block trade around the world in pirated and counterfeit goods and empower U.S. businesses to secure and enforce their intellectual property rights.

The Office of the Coordinator was established by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 and was appropriated $2 million for activities through September 2006.

Facts and Statistics

• The World Customs Organization and Interpol estimate the total global trade in illegitimate goods increased in 2004 to more than $600 billion.
• U.S. companies alone lose an estimated $250 billion per year, costing 750,000 American jobs.
• Nearly seven percent of the goods in the global marketplace are counterfeit.
• According to industry estimates cited in USTR’s 2005 Special 301 Report, in China alone, ninety percent of the music and movies sold are pirated.