USCIB Vice Presidents Mike Michener and Shaun Donnelly met with the U.S. Department of State team handling Intellectual Property rights (IPR), counterfeiting and piracy and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on March 21 in Washington DC.  Department of State experts from both the Economic and Business (EB) Bureau and the International Organizations (IO) Bureau reviewed U.S. government policy priorities, management concerns and upcoming challenges across the IPR agenda.

EB’s Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement focuses on substantive IPR issues, including a lot of interagency coordination.  The IO Bureau’s Office of Specialized and Technical Agencies focuses more specifically on the institutional, budget and management issues around WIPO.

“WIPO remains a mixed bag for the U.S. government as it does for industry – some useful work but also some deep frustrations whether WIPO is really a strong advocate and enforcer of IPR policies or more of ‘development organization’ more intent on justifying exceptions to strong IPR rules and regulations,” noted Donnelly.

At the meeting, Michener, who leads USCIB’s policy work on intellectual property and innovation, discussed USCIB’s priorities on IPR issues and plans to take a team of member companies for a series of high level meetings at WIPO as part of USCIB’s “Geneva Week”  May 6-10.

“USCIB and especially our IPR Committee will stay in close touch with State and other key U.S. government agencies on the full range of important issues,” said Michener.