The Internet Association and other industry groups cited a range of “cross-cutting issues” they believe would weaken U.S. entities’ IP rights internationally, in filings Thursday to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. IA included EU member states’ adoption of “ancillary copyright laws” seen as a tax on use of snippets. Tech sector groups noted concerns about ancillary copyright laws during USTR's 2016 Special 301 proceeding (see 1603010060). Such laws also have factored into U.S. stakeholders' opposition to a European Commission copyright law revamp proposal (see 1608290062). USTR collected comments through midnight Thursday on its annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance was one of several industry groups that indicated Thursday it would submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pushing for China, India and Russia to remain on the office's mid-tier Special 301 priority watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations. USTR was to collect comments through midnight Thursday on its annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement. China, India and Russia have long occupied USTR's priority watch list, which included eight other countries when USTR released its 2016 report (see 1604270049).
President-elect Donald Trump will likely take “a businessman’s approach" to intellectual-property issues, said American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Thomas Sydnor. That means “one that focuses on practical issues, like cost-effective enforceability,” Sydnor wrote in a Wednesday blog post. What Trump will do on intellectual property may be easier to predict than other policy areas, Sydnor said. “President-elect Trump will soon become -- by far -- the most experienced user of domestic and international IP rights ever to serve as the President of the United States,” he said. “During his long business career, Mr. Trump pursued sophisticated, usually unified, branding strategies based upon his last name, had great success in the copyright industries, and has used the IP-like rights granted by state laws that protect reputational, privacy, and publicity rights.” Trump should focus on making it easier for businesses to enforce their IP rights, said Sydnor. He should support legislative efforts to overhaul the Copyright Office, like the one by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the AEI fellow said. Trump should oppose sub-market compulsory licenses including American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers/Broadcast Music Inc. consent decrees from the 1940s, Sydnor said. Trump opposed free trade agreements, but he should consider renegotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership, Sydnor said. Or the U.S. Trade Representative could better enforce existing trade agreements, he said.
Outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman asked the International Trade Commission to do investigations of business-to-business and business-to-consumer digital technologies developed for overseas sale, including the IoT, cloud and software, in a letter to the ITC released Tuesday. He asked the ITC to review: the broad landscape and recent developments of B2B digital technology principally used by the private sector; foreign market policies that affect U.S. firms’ overseas supplies of B2B digital products and services; and foreign measures that affect international inventories of U.S. firms’ business-to-consumer digital products and services. The investigations would help the Office of USTR evaluate ways companies and workers use the internet and related data networks to ship innovative products and services overseas, and will help the agency assess the impact of trade barriers on manufactured goods trade powered by data networks and digitally enabled services, Froman said. He asked the ITC to complete the first report by Aug. 30, the second report by Oct. 29, 2018, and the third report by March 30, 2019. USTR plans to make the first report public and Froman asked that it not contain confidential business or national security classified information, and asked the ITC to make portions of the second and third reports confidential for 10 years, where warranted.
The Trump FCC landing team added Harris Wiltshire attorney Patricia Paoletta, according to its roster, which was updated Thursday. Paoletta specializes in telecom, trade and tech policy at the firm, advising on issues before the FCC and the administration, including spectrum issues. "Her clients include providers of mobile broadband and Internet of Things (IoT), VoIP, submarine cable and other international telecommunications," says her Harris Wiltshire webpage. She's the sixth member of the landing team.
Though China has made progress on intellectual property, issues remain, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reported to Congress on the country's World Trade Organization Compliance. During 2016, the two nations made “significant progress” on ensuring that information and communications technology (ICT) policies don't impose unnecessary nationality-based restrictions on the purchase, sale or use of those products by commercial enterprises, said USTR. It said the U.S. will continue to engage China on ICT policies and technology localization. China is reforming its IP rights regime, but U.S. companies must contend with unpunished thefts of trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese companies, widespread counterfeiting and “bad faith” trademark registration, whereby Chinese authorities “hold … them for ransom,” USTR said. It noted Chinese officials at a November Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting in Washington cited potential harm caused by “bad-faith” trademarks and confirmed they're taking more steps to combat them. Overly burdensome licensing requirements, discriminatory regulatory processes and informal bans on entry and expansion continue to affect telecom and internet-related services doing business in China, the report said.
Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma met Monday with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss “how Alibaba can create 1 million U.S. jobs by enabling 1 million U.S. small businesses to sell goods into the China and the Asian marketplace,” a Trump spokesman said. Trump’s meeting with Ma came less than a month after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative redesignated Alibaba’s Taobao online shopping arm as a “notorious” market for IP infringement. Taobao faced ongoing criticism for not doing enough to combat the sales of counterfeit products (see 1612210068). Trump’s presidential campaign pledged to force China to stop IP theft (see 1606290080).
President-elect Donald Trump's intended nominee for U.S. Trade Representative has some experience in lobbying for the media industry. Trump wants Robert Lighthizer, a former trade official in the Reagan administration, for the job, his transition team said Tuesday. Lighthizer also has experience at the firm of Skadden Arps, including several lobbying clients, according to a search of records of the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database. His name shows up in a lobbyist search on 2000’s mid-year reports for NAB and News Corp. There will be close coordination between Wilbur Ross, Trump's pick for Commerce secretary (see 1612200017), and Peter Navarro, head of the new White House National Trade Council, "to develop and implement policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand economic growth, strengthen our manufacturing base and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores," said a transition team statement. Lighthizer emerged as contender for the USTR job when he was named to Trump's "landing team" for the USTR transition. Initial reactions from congressional Democrats were largely positive. Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he looks forward to hearing how Lighthizer plans to develop "a trade policy that is as effective for the millworker in Medford, Oregon, as it is for the software developer in Silicon Valley." Wyden also took a shot at Trump's use of Twitter to lay out policy. “It is well past time for the incoming administration to explain its approach toward international trade beyond 140 characters," he said.
The U.S. Trade Representative “will still obviously be the principal negotiator on trade deals,” transition spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday. Spicer will work as the press secretary in the incoming Trump administration. In recent weeks, transition officials have talked about the significance of the role of commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, with one saying Ross would “ultimately direct” the incoming administration’s trade policy (see 1612200017). Expect “a much greater team effort” on trade in the new administration, with Ross and others such as Peter Navarro, an adviser appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as director of trade and industrial policy, playing an “instrumental role” and addressing “an agenda and a policy” in this realm, said Spicer. Trump said Tuesday that Jason Greenblatt will be special representative for international negotiations, but that’s a role that will be “bigger than just trade,” Spicer told reporters Wednesday. Trump hasn't named an nominee for the USTR position.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released results Wednesday of its 2016 Special 301 out-of-cycle review on IP infringement, which redesignated major Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and its Taobao online shopping arm to its blacklist. The annual report included Alibaba/Taobao among 21 online markets, along with ExtraTorrent, The Pirate Bay, Putlocker and other websites that have repeatedly appeared in the USTR rankings. The document also included 19 physical markets engaged in selling counterfeit copyrighted materials, including six markets in China.