By
Mark Elliot and Nancy Ploeger
Creative
and innovative industries are the cornerstone to New York’s rich cultural and
economic history, and also offer opportunities for a prosperous future.
New
York’s creative spirit is its economic engine. According to a U.S. Chamber of
Commerce study, over one-third of the private sector employment in the state
depends on the products and economic activity generated by copyrights, patents,
and trademarks belonging to New Yorkers. Those 2.8 million jobs generate 40% of
New York’s gross state product.
New
York is known for giving creators and entrepreneurs a shot at their dreams.
This state attracts incredibly diverse, innovative and creation-friendly individuals,
including budding Broadway stars to accomplished scientists. Intellectual
property (IP) rights fuel the creative genius of New York’s homegrown talent,
and attract businesses from around the country and the world to invest in our
people.
New
York is home to a wide array of entrepreneurial businesses and innovators, like
health care, media, advertising, fashion designers, university researchers, gaming
and software firms, and filmmakers, just to name a few. All of these rely on the assurance of IP
rights to continue to research, create jobs, and develop breakthrough
technologies and products. Protecting and promoting IP rights is essential to
keeping our economic momentum going.
IP
theft is a major concern for businesses and industries of all sizes. Today,
stealing creative products can be measured by clicks of the mouse, as well as
patent and trademark infringement, like fake car parts, counterfeit sporting
goods, or phony plastics. And this occurrence is all too common. With $650
billion lost annually to counterfeited products and pirated goods worldwide, it
is imperative that we support the efforts of agencies like Customs and Border
Protection and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to help fight this bleed on
our economy.
The
downside to fake goods is not limited to the negative impact on a company’s
bottom line. They also have the potential to hurt consumers. Overseas IP
thieves are slapping trusted brand names onto dangerously deceptive fakes, from
pirated music infected with computer malware, to counterfeit airbags that could
fail to deploy when your family needs them most.
It’s
not just practical, it’s good business sense to equip companies and industries
with the know-how to identify and stave off the drain of IP theft. IP
protections provide the incentive for innovators and creators to push the
limits of human ingenuity to develop new products that improve our lives,
whether they be a hit song, the newest tech gadget, or even a life-saving
medicine.
With
New York’s long history of creativity and innovation, defending IP rights and
empowering the people who hold those rights, like artists, is essential to our
economic vitality. After all, as Frank Sinatra famously crooned, “if you can
make it here, you can make it anywhere.”
Mark
Elliot is the Executive Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global
Intellectual Property Center.
Nancy
Ploeger is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Manhattan Chamber
of Commerce
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