GAO Says Enhancements Needed in Intellectual Property Efforts
The Government Accountability Office has posted a report entitled “Intellectual Property: Agencies Progress in Implementing Recent Legislation, but Enhancements Could Improve Future Plans.”
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PRO-IP Act Created IPEC to Coordinate IP Efforts, Create Strategic Plan
Under the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (PRO-IP Act), Congress required the U.S. Attorney General, through the Department of Justice, to devote additional resources and undertake other specific IP efforts.
The PRO-IP Act also created the position of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) to enhance interagency coordination, which coordinated with other federal entities to deliver the 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement.
Plan Still Needs to Identify Implementing Entities and Resource Estimates
GAO states that in general, the Joint Strategic Plan addressed each content requirement listed in the PRO-IP Act. The plan includes analyses of the economic, health, and safety threats posed by violations of IP rights. The plan also provides a description of the priorities that will carry out the plan’s objectives and the means to be employed to achieve these priorities.
However, two enhancements could help to improve future plans: identifying implementing entities for all action items related to the plan’s priorities and establishing resource estimates. While the Act calls for the plan to identify implementing departments and agencies for all priorities, the plan did not do so for about one third of the action items aligned to the priorities.
In addition, the plan did not include estimates of the resources needed to fulfill the plan’s priorities because data collection and analysis are still in progress.
DOJ/FBI Have Taken Required Actions, but There Are Funding Delays, Etc.
GAO also notes that DOJ and its Federal Bureau of Investigation officials report that they have taken many actions called for in the PRO-IP Act. For example, the act calls for two assistant U.S. attorneys to be assigned to each Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Crime (CHIP) Unit. DOJ has assigned 97 Assistant U.S. Attorneys to work with CHIP units, with all 25 CHIP units having two or more attorneys assigned.
However, FBI officials observed the increase in IP dedicated agent positions has not correspondingly increased agent-hour charges for IP investigations, noting delays in funding, hiring, training and deploying IP-dedicated agents.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 06/23/10 news, 10062362, for BP summary of IPEC’s report on the Administration’s 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement.
See ITT’s Online Archives or 02/19/10 news, 10021915, for BP summary of DOJ’s announcement of the formation of the Task Force on Intellectual Property.)
(GAO-11-39, dated October 2010)