More Thoughts On International Piracy

While this is a blog that focuses on Fashion Intellectual Property, sometimes it is nice to get a larger sense of what is going on in the world of Intellectual Property. Right now, the United States is at a very important juncture in its economic health. This election means lots of things, but one of them is how the United States will survive.

Whether you know it or not, intellectual property is necessary to United States' survival in the global market: "

"The FBI estimates that intellectual property theft costs the U.S. economy more than $250 billion a year. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, that translates into more than 750,000 lost jobs. Exactly what that means in terms of lost exports is tough to quantify, but Jonathan Huneke, vice president of the U.S. Council for International Business, believes it is profound. 'Products with significant IP (intellectual property) make up more than half of all U.S. exports, driving 40 percent of the country’s growth,' he said." (http://www.shippingdigest.com/news/article.asp?sid=5598&ltype=feature)

The scary thing is that most businesses do not realize that their intellectual property protection only covers their products within the United States. If you copyright an item in the U.S. or own a trademark in the U.S., it does not cover any copyright or trademark infringement internationally: "And according to Hank Cox, a spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers, the problem is made worse by the fact that most small businesses do not know there is a problem. 'Research conducted in the spring of 2005 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicates that only 15 percent of small businesses that do business overseas know that a U.S. patent or trademark provides protection only in the United States,' Cox said.

An artist who was trying to break into the fashion industry learned this the hard way: "A painter and designer, who asked that her name not be used, two years ago sent out a fabric design to be reproduced by a Chinese manufacturer. She obtained an international copyright and seemed to follow all the steps needed for a modest expansion of her little operation in a resort town.
But as she was holding a press conference to unveil her new design, friends hesitantly told her that they had already seen purses with the design available in the shops of the tourist area where she worked. The counterfeits were from China.

'The fakes actually were turned around faster than her originals,' a friend said. 'There was nothing she could do that made any sort of economic sense as she had no resources to fight it. All of us in the design business learned a lesson that very small businesses must be very careful in outsourcing material.'

The painter got out of the outsourcing business and redirected her efforts to other, non-counterfeitable businesses, such as painting, a gallery and a restaurant." (http://www.shippingdigest.com/news/article.asp?sid=5598&ltype=feature)

Here is my take on this: It is necessary for regular Americans to stop obsessing over manufacturing jobs that are being outsourced. That is something that we can not control. However as this global economy gets tighter and more interwoven, it will become more necessary for Americans to pay attention to intellectual property rights. This election makes a difference. Go out and vote! Our economic well being depends on it.