IP Rights and Anti-Piracy
Strong intellectual property laws are fundamental to our industry's ongoing ability to produce and deliver creative works to the marketplace. IFTA lobbies actively for enactment of the necessary laws and for effective criminal and civil enforcement of those laws.
Documents
IFTA Comments in Response to Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
IFTA recommends stronger IP regulations and enforcement in the U.S. and abroad.
Copyright Piracy and its Impact on the U.S. Intellectual Property Community
IFTA's ongoing advocacy included a recent hearing on anti-piracy issues before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. IFTA commented that piracy causes lost revenues and damages the value of independent films by lowering the license fees that may be obtained by local distributors.
Special 301 Annual Report Guides USTR on International Copyright Piracy Issues
As a founding member of the International Intellectual Property Association, IFTA contributes marketplace research and analysis to the Annual Special 301 Report, a comprehensive overview of countries that have failed to provide copyright protection or have been flagged as potential offenders. The report also details each country's legislation and other measures to improve copyright enforcement within its borders.
IFTA works with the United States Trade Representative in the WTO complaint against China for failing to protect and enforce intellectual property rights, inconsistent with its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) obligations. In this case, United States asserts that criminal trademark and copyright infringement thresholds are inadequate, creating willful copyright piracy on a commercial scale, and that authorities have failed to prevent unlawful intellectual property products from entering channels of commerce.