The new “IP Czar” in the White House is cooking up a “Joint Strategic Plan” to better enforce copyrights, trademarks, and patents—and she wants your help.
Victoria Espinel is the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, a position created in 2008 by the PRO-IP Act. She took to the White House blog yesterday to introduce herself and her work, saying, “My job is to help protect the ideas and creativity of the American public.”
Her job is also to protect Americans, since “counterfeit products can pose a significant threat to the health and safety of us all. Imagine learning that the toothpaste you and your family have used for years contains a dangerous chemical. US Customs officials have seized several shipments of counterfeit toothpaste containing a dangerous amount of diethylene glycol, a chemical used in brake fluid, and that in sufficient doses is believed to cause kidney failure.”
To keep our kidneys functioning, Espinel’s grandly named Joint Strategic Plan will bring together all the different branches of government in order to crack down more efficiently on IP violations. While tainted toothpaste and counterfeit car parts get top billing, Espinel is also out to stop “illegal software” and “pirated video games.”
Full story: White House “IP Czar” demands good data from rightsholders