Modified Intellectual Property ENforcement Act Introduced
On February 7, Senators George Voinovich (R-OH) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) introduced S. 522, the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Act. The text of the bill is not yet available from the Government Printing Office, but, once posted, should be viewable here. According to Senator Voinovich's press release, the bill would:
- Create a single interagency enforcement unit to combat IP theft that would facilitate the sharing of information
- Establish formal processes for consulting with small and medium sized businesses, industry associations and other interested groups and to develop resources to assist such stakeholders in protecting their intellectual property
- Establish an international task force of foreign countries to track and identify IP criminals;
- Encourage reliable trading partners to join the task force
- Require a Strategic Plan to identify the objectives of the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Act and the methods for achieving those objectives.
A similar bill, S. 1984, was introduced in late 2005, but was not enacted.