Topic: International Intellectual Property Protection
Country: United States
Delegate Name: Nagasai Vipul Adusumilli
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All United States position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Intellectual property (IP) protection is a very important aspect of society. It protects people's and state’s right to create new ideas and inventions and reap the benefits of them. States such as the People’s Republic of China have been accused of stealing IP’s from foreign nations. Intellectual-property theft covers a wide spectrum such as counterfeiting fashion designs, pirating movies and videogames, patent infringement and stealing proprietary technology and software. The Paris and Berne convention set a foundation for IP laws. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) assists applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, helps patent offices with their patent granting decisions, and facilitates public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions. Countries now more than ever have been stealing IP without consequences.
The United States of America has altogether lost costs up to $600 billion a year in IP theft. China accounts for most of that loss. This assault hurts economic growth, costs Americans jobs, weakens our military capability. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has made a list of countries who have IP problems. On our priority watch list we have China, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Alegria, Kuwait, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, and Chile. Our watch list includes Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia and many more countries. For example Chinese companies have stolen trade secrets from virtually every sector of the our economy such as automobiles, auto tires, aviation, chemicals, consumer electronics, electronic trading, industrial software, biotech and pharmaceuticals. Last year U.S. Steel accused Chinese hackers of stealing trade secrets related to the production of lightweight steel, then turning them over to Chinese steel makers. China has targeted the American defense industrial base. Chinese spies have gone after private defense contractors and subcontractors, national laboratories, public research universities, think tanks and the our government itself. Chinese agents have gone after the United States’ most significant weapons, such as the F-35 Lightning, the Aegis Combat System and the Patriot missile system. They also illegally exported unmanned underwater vehicles and thermal-imaging cameras,and stole documents related to the B-52 bomber, the Delta IV rocket, the F-15 fighter and even the Space Shuttle. Chinese government support for intellectual-property theft could trigger retaliatory action by our government, based on the Economic Espionage Act, Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the National Defense Authorization Act. Countries such as Venezuela have signed the Paris convention but not have signed the PCT. We encourage all countries to sign the PCT.
We would like to see the UN strictly enforce IP protection. We strongly recommend states to also enforce the IP laws themselves in their own states. We encourage states to sign the PCT in order to help their economies.
