Prepared Statement of The Honorable Barbara Cubin

Product Counterfeiting: How Fakes Are Undermining U.S. Jobs, Innovation, and Consumer Safety

Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection
June 15, 2005

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

In their wisdom, the founders of our Nation gave Congress the constitutional power to protect the Intellectual Property of AAuthors and Inventors@ in order to Apromote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts.@ Among the many political and legal innovations of the Constitution, the addition of this enumerated power to Article I was agreed to unanimously. The spirit of ownership contained in this clause as well as throughout our country=s founding document lives on today as a cornerstone of our economy.

Patents encourage groundbreaking innovation and development by protecting the IP that is even more valuable than material components. Copyrights serve the cause of the arts by rewarding creativity. Trademarks protect consumers from confusion and deceptive marketing practices by allowing them to identify and distinguish unique goods and services.

But we still have much work to be done in protecting IP to keep up with technological innovations and meet the challenges presented by the global marketplace, in which some of our fellow World Trade Organization members and trading partners, like China, fail to comply with their IP protection obligations. The astonishing rates of counterfeiting and piracy in countries like China, to go along with a lack of effective deterrents, casts a long dark shadow on our efforts to promote fair and open global trade. From software and artistic content to auto parts and pharmaceuticals, the lack of IP protection abroad harms U.S. industries and small business owners and in many instances poses a danger to consumer safety.

I look forward to our panel=s insight into the efficacy to date of IP protections in international trade agreements. I hope their expertise will help us identify how to better enforce these obligations abroad, as well as provide guidance as to how we can best protect IP in future trade agreements.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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