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: 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.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
