Open Forum at ABA Annual Meeting on Online Piracy and Counterfeiting

In August 2012, the Intellectual Property Law (IPL) Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) will be hosting an open forum during the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago on online piracy and counterfeiting. I will be moderating one panel (on the scope and severity of the problem) and one of my co-chairs of the Joint Task Force on Online Piracy and Counterfeiting, Chris Katopis, will be moderating the other (essentially, on the U.S. government's response and remedies). During these panels, and through the work of the Task Force, we are focusing on conduct by entities offshore – essentially foreign sites that currently are beyond U.S. jurisdiction, but who may be engaged in significant copyright piracy of U.S. works and/or trademark counterfeiting of U.S. trademarks.
 
More details about the panels can be found on the ABA's Annual Meeting Site, and in particular, the Intellectual Property Law Section's description of the IPL programs that will occur during the meeting.

This panel follows a similar panel that I moderated in March, during the IPL Section's Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. (page 9). We had excellent attendance and feedback after the program. I am hoping for a similar result from the Chicago panel discussion, and look forward to getting feedback and input from the attendees about these issues.

In the meantime, here are some governmental resources that identify some of the concerns, and the impacts on the U.S. economy of piracy & counterfeiting that originates outside our borders, but is directed to a U.S. audience:

• Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Annual Reports
  
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement
  • CBP/ICE FY 2011 seizure statistics,
• Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC)
  • IPEC's Spotlight Newsletter, various editions
  • Sign up to get updated notifications from IPEC through email: Send an email to IntellectualProperty@omb.eop.gov, and include as your subject: "Intellectual Property Spotlight Subscription Request."
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Intellectual Property "Issue" Page
• US Trade Representative, Intellectual Property Initiative
• USTR Special 301 report for 2012 
• USTR Notorious Markets reports
• US Patent & Trademark Office, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Attaché Program

I look forward to seeing you in August.