Here are a few items of interest in the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator’s Joint Strategic Plan issued yesterday.
Reference to Fair Use — p. 18
Effective enforcement is critical to providing meaningful protection of intellectual property rights, but enforcement approaches should not discourage authors from building appropriately upon the works of others. We recognize the work that agencies across the U.S. Government are doing in the area of intellectual property education, and their efforts to increase and improve this work in the digital environment. This work includes efforts at the USPTO and the U.S. Copyright Office to help the general public better understand the Constitutional purpose and value of intellectual property laws, and the scope of both protections and exceptions in such laws.
The Administration believes, and the U.S. Copyright Office agrees, that authors (including visual artists, songwriters, filmmakers, and writers) would benefit from more guidance on the fair use doctrine. Fair use is a core principle of American copyright law. The Supreme Court has repeatedly underscored fair use provisions in the Copyright Act as a key means of protecting free speech, and many courts across the land have upheld the application of fair use as an affirmative defense to infringement, in a wide variety of circumstances.
In order to make fair use more accessible to the authors of the 21st century, ease confusion about permissible uses, and thereby encourage the production of a greater variety of creative works, the U.S. Copyright Office, working in consultation with the Administration, will publish and maintain an index of major fair use decisions, including a summary of the holdings and some general questions and observations that may in turn guide those seeking to apply the decisions to their own situations.
Domestic legislation – p. 41
IPEC will initiate and coordinate a process, working with Federal agencies and the U.S. Copyright Office, to review existing intellectual property laws to improve enforcement. This review will examine potential shortfalls in existing laws, gaps created by advances in technology, and limitations placed on agencies by outdated language, taking into account all relevant sections of the Green Paper on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Internet Economy currently being developed by USPTO. The initial review process will be completed within 120 days from the date of the submission of this Joint Strategic Plan to Congress. The Administration, coordinated through IPEC, will recommend to Congress any proposed legislative changes to improve enforcement resulting from this review process.
Reference to TPP – p. 85
Advancing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations. Through five formal negotiating rounds and numerous intercessional meetings this year, TPP partners together made meaningful progress in all areas of the agreement as outlined by TPP Leaders in late 2011. Work continued to move forward on strong commitments in the area of intellectual property, as well as other chapters of the agreement. Informed by input from a wide range of stakeholders, the United States complemented its strong intellectual property rights proposals in TPP with a new proposal that would, for the first time in any U.S. trade agreement, obligate Parties to seek to achieve an appropriate balance in their copyright systems in providing copyright exceptions and limitations for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
