President Bush signed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act (a.k.a., the PRO-IP Act) earlier this week.
You can read about it here and here. The full text of the PRO-IP Act can be found here.
The PRO-IP Act establishes increased penalties for counterfeiting violations and strengthens America's ability to combat counterfeiting, including by the following means:
In addition, there has been some debate on whether the full intent of the law will be carried out. For example, Counterfeit Chic's Susan Scafidi writes that the new Intellectual Property Czar will likely be appointed by the next President. Unless there is a late surge by Senator McCain, Senator Obama is likely to be elected the next President. Scafidi believes that he could then appoint Larry Lessig as the first IP Czar to enforce provisions of the PRO-IP Act. While Lessig advocates a radical loosening of enforcement of copyright, his primary focus is on the intangible world of the internet rather than physical counterfeiting. Lessig has shown relatively little interest in undermining the real world regime, and as such, I must respectfully dissent from Professor Scafidi's analysis (at least in terms of "real world" counterfeit goods).
Wired's Threat Level Blog is polling its readers on who should be the next Intellectual Property Czar here.
And while $25 million dollars sounds impressive, the actual application of the monies (spread over the entirety of the United States) may well be insufficient for the task at hand.
While attention and controversy swirl around the copyright/media portion of the PRO-IP Act, there is little doubt and debate that for the real world manufactured counterfeits, the increased enforcement is very welcome and a very positive step in the right direction.
You can read about it here and here. The full text of the PRO-IP Act can be found here.
The PRO-IP Act establishes increased penalties for counterfeiting violations and strengthens America's ability to combat counterfeiting, including by the following means:
- Treble damages in civil actions and a doubling of criminal fines.
- Strengthened penalties against sellers of counterfeit goods that do physical harm.
- Increased seizure ability by law enforcement in copyright cases (normally, pirated media rather than counterfeited manufactured goods).
- Increased diplomatic resources and attention to the problem of counterfeiting and piracy by dedicating ten "Intellectual Property Attaches" to staff American embassies to promote the protection of intellectual property as a formal component of international relations.
- $25 million to help local law enforcement develop anti-counterfeiting law enforcement techniques.
In addition, there has been some debate on whether the full intent of the law will be carried out. For example, Counterfeit Chic's Susan Scafidi writes that the new Intellectual Property Czar will likely be appointed by the next President. Unless there is a late surge by Senator McCain, Senator Obama is likely to be elected the next President. Scafidi believes that he could then appoint Larry Lessig as the first IP Czar to enforce provisions of the PRO-IP Act. While Lessig advocates a radical loosening of enforcement of copyright, his primary focus is on the intangible world of the internet rather than physical counterfeiting. Lessig has shown relatively little interest in undermining the real world regime, and as such, I must respectfully dissent from Professor Scafidi's analysis (at least in terms of "real world" counterfeit goods).
Wired's Threat Level Blog is polling its readers on who should be the next Intellectual Property Czar here.
And while $25 million dollars sounds impressive, the actual application of the monies (spread over the entirety of the United States) may well be insufficient for the task at hand.
While attention and controversy swirl around the copyright/media portion of the PRO-IP Act, there is little doubt and debate that for the real world manufactured counterfeits, the increased enforcement is very welcome and a very positive step in the right direction.
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