Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today we move to dramatically step up our Nation's intellectual property laws and enforcement efforts. With so much unpleasant economic news in the headlines, the measure before us, H.R. 4279, puts resources towards aiding a sector of the economy that employs an estimated 18 million workers. That is 13 percent of our labor force and accounts for half of all of the United States exports driving 40 percent of the country's growth. As a result of less-than-effective enforcement, however, counterfeiting and piracy cost the United States' economy somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 billion a year and creates the loss of about 750,000 American jobs. And so H.R. 4279 will do these important things: It will prioritize intellectual property protection to the highest level of our government by creating an office in the White House that will be responsible for coordinating the intellectual property efforts of eight diverse agencies and producing a national Joint Strategic Plan for IP enforcement. It will elevate IP enforcement within the Department of Justice and provide more resources for investigating and prosecuting IP crimes. It will make changes to both civil and criminal IP laws to enhance the ability of intellectual property owners to effectively protect their rights, and it will increase penalties for IP violations that endanger public health and safety.”