U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Annual Report on Intellectual Property Enforcement, 2010

摘要

Americas greatest export has been, and remains, the creativity, ingenuity and innovation of the American People. As the President said in the State of the Union address on January 25, (w)e're the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesnt just change our lives. It is how we make a living. It is that innovation and ingenuity and, the products that spring from it, that people generally call intellectual property. Our Founding Fathers showed tremendous foresight in providing for the creation of intellectual property rights in the Constitution, which has helped spur our emergence as a global economic power and creator of products the world craves. But creating intellectual property rights, without effective enforcement of those rights, is meaningless and leads to stifling of innovation and growth. An innovator who develops the next revolutionary technology that would otherwise drive our economy in the 21st Century cannot compete against a foreign company that steals the technology, unfairly creates their own competing product and then markets it for less because they did not bear the cost of creating the technology in the first place. Our efforts to enforce intellectual property rights must make sure that the companies that create innovation are the ones that reap the economic reward resulting from the innovation, both for reasons of fundamental fairness and to ensure an incentive for others to continue to innovate. The growth resulting from the protection and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights benefits not only companies that make the innovative products, but creates the jobs that will lead our economy and our people to a better tomorrow. These are jobs that we want to create and support, with high wages and strong benefits. At the June 23, 2010, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the release of the Joint Strategic Plan, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO stood together in support of strengthened intellectual property enforcement and they have continued to express strong support for the Administrations efforts.