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Release Date: July 10, 2008
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
Secretary Chertoff: Thank you very much, Julie. Thank you also to all of you who are attending here. I know Secretary Gutierrez is expected shortly. Mr. Williams from Underwriters Laboratory is here, and I'm delighted to be here to dedicate the new National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.
Now, just for those of you who think that intellectual property rights is just about protecting the makers of handbags and watches, in fact, there's a very important public safety element to intellectual property rights. If you look at the table here, and you look at things like toothpaste or what appears to be a bottle of some kind of liquor, these are products that will be ingested. And if they are misbranded, adulterated, not what they are represented to be, there's not only a loss of the value of the item being purchased, but there could actually be a real harm and injury to public safety and public welfare. So this really is a safety matter as well as an economic matter.
Of course, as Assistant Secretary Myers said, this is a team effort. And that's why this is an intellectual property rights coordination center, to reflect the fact that coordination is the key element, because we're integrating the activities not only of a lot of organizations here in the U.S., but also of our partners overseas. In fact, we're looking for new and innovative ways to coordinate with partners at every level -- not just government, but the private sector, state and local, sharing intelligence, cooperating with law enforcement and exchanging best practices about how to deal with the very real threat to our economic base and our public welfare that is caused when people counterfeit, adulterate or misbrand goods. And this newly restructured IPR Center is a good example and, really, a testimonial to this intergovernmental cooperation.
Now, of course, with the increase in trade, the increase of economic activity both domestically and internationally, we have, unfortunately, seen a significant increase in the complexity and volume of criminal activity that is directed at intellectual property rights. And correspondingly, we've seen an increase in the threats to the health and safety of those who consume products, believing them to be something other than what they really are.
Just to give you an example of some of the fake products that criminal organizations have tried to pass off to consumers - counterfeit toothpaste which contained anti-freeze, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, with insufficient medicine to treat or cure the illness. Substandard structural steel that can fail under stress. Or, counterfeit circuit breakers that can explode or cause fires. Industry and trade associations have estimated that counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year. And also cost three-quarters of a million American jobs.
These bogus products are not only a threat to health and safety and a threat to our economy, but they can be used to fund other illicit activities, such as moving drugs, weapons, or people in to our country illegally.
So from every standpoint - health and safety, economics and our desire to clamp down on international organized crime, working together as efficiently as possibly to protect intellectual property against these kinds of criminal activity is really a very high priority for everybody in the United States government.
Now, in setting up the new center, we've reorganized the way we combat these criminal organizations. And we really emphasized and facilitated a team approach at all levels of government and with the private sector to make sure we're bringing all the elements of national power to bear in dealing with what is a national and transnational problem. We're using the tried and true task force model, which we've used in law enforcement over the many years I've been involved in this type of activity. That means we have representatives from Customs and Border Protection, ICE, the FBI, the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Postal Inspections Service all working side by side. Co-locating has proven time and again to be the key to make sure there's fluid communication and coordination at all levels in order to produce the maximum benefit from a law enforcement standpoint.
And in addition to the center's operations and programs units, we're adding an outreach and training unit to coordinate training efforts at the Center, as well as at our various ICE field offices. This unit will be responsible for national and international outreach efforts to establish and promote investigative best practices with our partners around the country and around the globe. And for our international law enforcement partners, we will have a one-stop-shop here at the center for working with the U.S. Government on the problem of counterfeiting and intellectual property theft.
Our national assets and our productive resources in many ways are concentrated in our intellectual property. That is the real value add that America brings to the global economy. And so keeping American consumers and American businesses safe from counterfeit products has got to be a top priority for all of the agencies of this Administration. And both Secretary Gutierrez and I remain committed to finding new ways to continue to protect intellectual property rights and will continue to apply a team approach to combating the economic, health and safety and security consequences of illicit products and illicit activities that prey on our intellectual property.
So I want to thank everybody here for attending and, more important, I want to thank you for participating in standing up and running this center which will really, I think, be a force multiplier for law enforcement and for the protection of not only very important economic assets, but more importantly, the health and safety of American consumers and, frankly, consumers throughout the world.
Thank you.
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This page was last reviewed/modified on July 10, 2008.
