“In an effort to strengthen laws protecting creative and intellectual property,” the House Judiciary Committee recently introduced bipartisan legislation, known as the “PRO IP” bill, to: strengthen the substantive civil and criminal laws relating to copyright and trademark infringement; establish an Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER); appoint intellectual property officers to work with foreign countries in their efforts to combat counterfeiting and piracy: and create a permanent Intellectual Property Division within the Department of Justice to improve law enforcement coordination.
The latter objective is to be accomplished, in part, by “transferring the functions of the existing Computer Crime and Intellectual Property section (CCIPs) that relate to intellectual property enforcement to the new IP Division” and to provide the DoJ with new resources targeted to improve IP law enforcement, including local law enforcement grants and additional investigative and prosecutorial personnel. It also requires that DoJ prepare an annual report that details its IP enforcement activities.
The Press Release is located here: http://judiciary.house.gov/newscenter.aspx?A=887