Press Release

Statement from U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement on the Announcement of New U.S. Chamber and Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy Agenda

WASHINGTON—U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement Chris Israel today issued the following statement on the announcement of a new U.S. Chamber and Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy Agenda.

“The Bush Administration continues to place a very high priority on the promotion and protection of U.S. intellectual property (IP). IP industries represent 40 percent of U.S. economic growth and employ 18 million Americans in good, high-paying jobs. Intellectual property accounts for over one-third of the value of all publicly traded U.S. corporations – an amount equal to almost half of the U.S. GDP.

“In 2004, the Bush Administration launched the Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!). STOP! is a strong and well-coordinated answer to the challenge of IP enforcement that includes senior officials from multiple federal agencies.

“We have witnessed the effectiveness of this initiative through tangible results: federal prosecutions for IP crimes were up 57% from 2005 to 2006, border seizures of counterfeit goods doubled last year and we remain aggressively engaged with all of our trading partners to promote strong IP enforcement.

“These efforts have benefited greatly from our collaboration with industry. We welcome the significant leadership shown by the U.S. Chamber, the CACP and all of their members, and we look forward to continuing to work with them to expand and strengthen our efforts to protect U.S. intellectual property.”