China Select Committee, Small Business Committee Ask for DOJ Briefing on IP Theft
The chairmen of the House Small Business Committee and the House Select Committee on China are asking for a detailed briefing by the end of June on DOJ's efforts to combat Chinese intellectual property theft.
In a June 15 letter, led by Reps. Roger Williams, R-Texas, and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and signed by 24 other Republicans, the members of Congress asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to cover these issues during the briefing:
- An overview of measures and initiatives to assist small businesses in protecting their IP rights
- An overview of the DOJ measures to investigate IP theft and hold guilty parties accountable
- Implementation of the Protect American IP Act of 2022
- Detailed plans to strengthen IP theft investigations
- Details on how the department addresses counterfeits.
The letter said the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property found that Chinese IP theft costs the U.S. economy $600 billion annually, and gave one example the head of the commission described, of online sales of an irrigation system copied from a Washington state company, Nelson Irrigation. The letter also gave an example of an individual entrepreneur who invented Bow Hold buddies, an accessory for beginning violin and viola players, who discovered Chinese manufacturers copied her U.S. patent, filed it in China, and were making the product there.
"Congress must force the Biden Administration to do more in protecting our nation’s innovation and national security assets, and I look forward to working alongside Chairman Gallagher and our colleagues to protect American small businesses and hold China accountable for their crimes," Williams said in the news release.