Article: Current Trends in Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement
2/1/2008 Courtland W. Anderson
Changes in the Law
In 2007, new legislation has been either introduced or proposed that would criminalize additional intellectual property infringements, and enhance the federal government's investigation of alleged intellectual property violations and enforcement of intellectual property rights. This legislation includes the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, or IPPA, which was proposed by the Department of Justice in May, but has yet to find a congressional sponsor, and the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Act, or IPREA, introduced in the Senate in February and in the House of Representatives in September. There are already a number of federal statutes that criminalize certain intentional intellectual property infringements, such as the Economic Espionage Act and the Copyright Act. Trafficking in counterfeit goods is also a criminal offense. However, the IPREA and IPPA go further in coordinating the federal government's efforts in protecting U.S. intellectual property rights here and abroad. The IPPA also proposes significant increases in penalties for certain types of intellectual property infringement, creates a new crime of attempted copyright infringement (subject to the same criminal penalties as actual copyright infringement), and provides for more powerful tools, such as wire tapping, for use by law enforcement personnel in investigating intellectual property infringement.
