ANNEX 2. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING
In addition to identifying concerns, this Report also highlights opportunities for the U.S. Government to work closely with trading partners to address those concerns. The U.S. Government collaborates with various trading partners on IPR-related training and capacity building around the world. Domestically and abroad, bilaterally, and in regional groupings, the U.S. Government remains engaged in building stronger, more streamlined, and more effective systems for the protection and enforcement of IPR.
Although many trading partners have enacted IPR legislation, a lack of criminal prosecutions and deterrent sentencing has reduced the effectiveness of IPR enforcement in many regions. These problems result from several factors, including a lack of knowledge of IPR law on the part of judges and enforcement officials, and insufficient enforcement resources. The United States welcomes steps by a number of trading partners to educate their judiciary and enforcement officials on IPR matters. The United States will continue to work collaboratively with trading partners to address these issues.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), through the Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA) and the Office of Policy and International Affairs offers programs in the United States and around the world to provide education, training, and capacity building on IPR protection, commercialization, and enforcement. These programs are offered to patent, trademark, and copyright officials, judges and prosecutors, police and customs officials, foreign policy makers, and U.S. rights holders.
Other U.S. Government agencies bring foreign government and private sector representatives to the United States on study tours to meet with IPR professionals and to visit the institutions and businesses responsible for developing, protecting, and promoting IPR in the United States. One such program is the Department of State's International Visitors Leadership Program, which brings groups from around the world to cities across the United States to learn more about IPR and related trade and business issues.
Overseas, the U.S. Government is also active in partnering to provide training, technical assistance, capacity building, exchange of best practices, and other collaborative activities to improve IPR protection and enforcement. The following are examples of these programs.
- In 2013, GIPA provided training to 7,078 foreign IPR officials from 135 countries, through 114 separate programs. Attendees included IPR policy makers, judges, prosecutors, customs officers, and examiners, and training topics covered the entire spectrum of IPR. Post-training surveys demonstrated that 100 percent of all attendees reported that they had taken some steps to implement positive policy change in their respective organizations.
- GIPA also has produced seven free distance-learning modules, available on its website in multiple languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian). There have been over 41,460 hits on those modules since being placed on the USPTO.gov site in early 2010.
- In addition, the USPTO's Office of Policy and International Affairs provides capacity building in countries around the world, and has concluded agreements with 20 national, regional, and international IPR organizations, such as the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), European Patent Office (EPO), German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), Government Agencies of the People's Republic of China, Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). These partnerships help establish a framework for joint development of informational, educational IP content, technical cooperation, and classification activities.
- The Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) collaborates with the private sector to develop programs to heighten the awareness of the dangers of counterfeit products and of the economic value of IPR to national economies. Additionally, ITA develops and shares small business tools to help domestic and foreign businesses understand IPR. ITA, working closely with other U.S. Government agencies and foreign partners, developed and made available IPR training materials in English, Spanish, and French. Under the auspices of the Transatlantic IPR Working Group, ITA worked closely with the European Union's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry to establish a Transatlantic IPR Portal so the resources of our respective governments are quickly and easily accessible to the public. All of the ITA-developed resources, including the Transatlantic IPR Portal, as well as information and links to the other programs identified in this Annex, are accessible via www.STOPfakes.gov.
- In 2013, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), through the National IPR Coordination Center (IPR Center) and in conjunction with INTERPOL, conducted law enforcement training programs in India, Mexico, Morocco, Algeria, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Malawi, Singapore and Thailand, and in France for countries from Southeast Asia. ICE-HSI trained officials and police officers from Mexico, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Fiji, Singapore, Algeria, Morocco, Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The IPR Center also conducted advanced training programs at the International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) in Botswana, El Salvador, Hungary, and Peru for participants from 26 countries.
- The Department of State provides training funds each year to U.S. Government agencies that provide IPR enforcement training and technical assistance to foreign governments. The agencies that provide such training include the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), USPTO, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and ICE. In 2013, the Department of State provided funds for 18 training programs for customs, police, and judicial officials from various trading partners, including Pakistan, Mexico, Indonesia, and the Philippines as well as regional trainings in Central America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The U.S. Government works collaboratively on many of these training programs with the private sector and with various international entities such as WIPO and INTERPOL.
- IPR protection is a main focus of the government-to-government technical assistance provided by the Commerce Department's Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP). CLDP programs address enforcement and adjudication of disputes, as well as IPR protection and its impact on the economy, IPR law compliance with the WTO TRIPS Agreement, IPR curricula in law schools, and public awareness campaigns. CLDP supports capacity building in innovation and technology transfer as well as in patent examination and copyright management in many countries worldwide. CLDP also works with the judiciary in various trading partners to improve the skills to effectively adjudicate IPR cases, and conducts interagency coordination programs to highlight the value of a whole-of-government approach to IPR protection and enforcement.
- The Department of Justice Criminal Division, using funding provided by and in cooperation with the Department of State, and in cooperation with other U.S. agencies, provides IPR enforcement training to foreign officials. Topics covered in these programs include investigating and prosecuting cases under intellectual property, economic/financial and organized crime statutes, combatting Internet piracy, intragovernmental and international cooperation and information sharing, obtaining and using electronic evidence; and the general importance of reducing counterfeiting and piracy. Major ongoing initiatives include multiple programs in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa.
- The U.S. Copyright Office, often in conjunction with various international visitor programs, hosts international visitors, including foreign government officials, to discuss and exchange information on the U.S. copyright system, its registration and recordation functions, and various international copyright issues. Staff also participates in a number of conferences in the United States and abroad to discuss current copyright issues and inform the public about the activities of the Copyright Office.
The United States reports annually to the WTO on its IPR capacity building efforts, including most recently in October 2013. (See Technical Cooperation Activities: Information from Members – United States, IP/C/W/594/Add.6).