U.S. Officials Go Overseas to Stop Organized Piracy

According to the press release issued on April 11, 2005, officials from seven federal agencies will travel to Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore on April 11-21 to further the Administration's Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!). On each leg of the trip, U.S. officials will meet with their government counterparts and representatives of the private sector to learn about their successful enforcement programs and to share proposals designed to make it easier for businesses to register and protect their brands in overseas markets by standardizing trademark registration and to raise the stakes for global pirates and counterfeiters and by improving law enforcement methods, cooperation and training and boosting investigation and prosecution of money laundering crimes associated with trade in fakes.

The delegation will include Victoria Espinel, Acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Intellectual Property; Steve Pinkos, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Daniel Baldwin, Acting Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Trade of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Stephen Jacobs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Agreements and Compliance; and Eric Klumb, Senior Counsel for the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Department of State and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security will be represented by their respective attachés in U.S. Embassies abroad.