A group of U.S. government officials are visiting Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore April 11 to 21 on an outreach mission intended to encourage cooperation and improved coordination in efforts to enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) and stop trade in counterfeit goods, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) says.
In an April 11 press release, the Office of the USTR says the officials will meet with government counterparts and private sector representatives to promote a Bush administration initiative called "STOP!" -- "Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy."
The "STOP!" initiative, first announced in October 2004, was designed to help American businesses reach out to like-minded trading partners and build an international coalition to stop piracy and counterfeiting worldwide.
"This week's meetings in Asia are an important opportunity to share information on our efforts to combat the theft of inventions, brands, and ideas, to learn from the experiences of others, and to begin developing cooperative enforcement mechanisms designed to make the world a miserable place for global pirates and counterfeiters," said Peter Allgeier, acting U.S. trade representative.
The delegation will include officials from USTR; the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; the U.S. Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security; the Department of Commerce; and the Department of Justice. They will be joined by the attachés of the Department of State and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security from the relevant U.S. embassies abroad.
Additional outreach efforts to other regions will follow in May, the press release said.
A fact sheet on the "STOP!" initiative is available at the USTR Website by clicking here.
Source: All Amererican Patriots
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