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Friday Jun 26, 2015

IP Attaché Program Outreach in San Diego and Los Angeles

Guest blog by Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs Shira Perlmutter

USPTO IP attachés provide valuable assistance to U.S. stakeholders doing business overseas by advising them on intellectual property matters including protection, enforcement, use and licensing. Last month, the IP Attaché Program conducted a set of outreach meetings in San Diego and Los Angeles. In these meetings, the USPTO engaged in an interactive dialogue with a wide variety of stakeholders, explaining how the IP Attaché Program works, and identifying more ways for IP attachés to address stakeholders’ needs.

The IP Attaché Program is overseen by USPTO’s Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA). The attachés are intellectual property experts who serve as diplomats in our embassies and consulates overseas to advocate U.S. positions on intellectual property matters for the benefit of U.S. stakeholders. The program currently has 11 attachés based in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, New Delhi, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Bangkok, Mexico City, Kuwait City, and Geneva, and they work closely with teams of specialized patent, trademark, copyright, and enforcement attorneys in OPIA. In August, we will be posting our first attaché in Brussels, who will be working with the European Commission and EU Member states.

Participants in the May meetings included senior representatives of industry associations, legal associations, law schools, IP practitioners, and U.S. companies. IP attachés based in Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico and Kuwait, as well as Dom Keating, the IP Attaché Program Director, addressed questions on topics including counterfeiting, piracy, and patent, trademark and copyright protection overseas. The IP attachés also spoke in sessions of the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting.

If you would like the assistance of an IP attaché, you can contact him or her directly using the contact information listed on the IP Attaché pages of the USPTO website. We look forward to holding additional IP Attaché Program public outreach meetings in the future.

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