Obama: “We’re going to aggressively protect our intellectual property”

Good news for visual artists and for those interested in art law. Yesterday President Obama, speaking at the Export-Import Bank’s Annual Conference, declared intellectual property “essential” to the prosperity of this country, and that this essential asset and competitive advantage will be protected from those who seek to steal these assets and replicate them with cheaper inputs and labor. Kudos also for his support for the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Here’s the snippet from his speech.

What’s more, we’re going to aggressively protect our intellectual property.  Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.  It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century.  But it’s only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can’t just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.  There’s nothing wrong with other people using our technologies, we welcome it –- we just want to make sure that it’s licensed, and that American businesses are getting paid appropriately.  That’s why USTR is using the full arsenal of tools available to crack down on practices that blatantly harm our businesses, and that includes negotiating proper protections and enforcing our existing agreements, and moving forward on new agreements, including the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Let’s hope he keeps his word on this one.

Tags: art, Art Law, Copyright, infringement, intellectual property, patent, piracy, Trademark