U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and AeA Join Together to Fight IP Theft, Stop Fakes

Today, success in a market economy depends more and more on intellectual property (IP) assets. Indeed, IP-based businesses drive more economic growth in the United States than any sector. 

Unfortunately, the benefits of capitalizing on intellectual property have captured the attention of counterfeiters and pirates around the world—and the threat posed to the U.S. economy by piracy and counterfeiting is staggering. Industry groups estimate that every year, American businesses lose $250 billion to copyright piracy and 750,000 jobs—again, per year—to overall IP theft. Consumer safety is also at risk: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that 10 percent of all pharmaceuticals in America are actually fake—and that these fakes can cause serious complications or even death.

While all U.S. businesses are vulnerable to IP theft, small businesses are often at a particular disadvantage. In the fierce competition for the time of a typical small-businessman or woman, things that go beyond payroll, accounting and general operations—including IP protection—often get put on the back burner, leaving small businesses at risk. In addition, small businesses may not have the personnel and operations needed to watch out for counterfeiters around the globe, so theft of their IP overseas can often go undetected. 

For more than 200 years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been the overseer of American intellectual property. Today, we are leading a government-wide effort to ensure that small businesses have the information they need to make informed decisions about IP protection. 

We want small businesses to think about intellectual property protection from day one—at the inception of their business—by asking themselves whether they need IP protection, and if so, what kind (patents, trademarks or copyrights), when and where to apply and how to go about doing so. 

To help small businesses answer these and many other questions, USPTO is sponsoring series of free seminars around the country. Two seminars are currently scheduled for the fall: September 12-13, in Austin, Texas; and September 26-27, in Miami, Florida. To register for these free seminars, please visit www.uspto.gov.

We are proud to be working with AeA to help small businesses—the engine of American economic growth—learn more about protecting their most valuable asset: their ideas.

More information about USPTO’s small business initiative, along with a wealth of IP-related tools, can be found at www.stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness. 

www.stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness

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An educational campaign of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Department of Commerce
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