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We noted in our immediately preceding blog post the centrality of property in the United States Constitution.
Explicit constitutional language clearly indicates the longstanding view in American society that intellectual property interests are flatly important and merit safeguarding.
And, as we observed in our October 5 blog post, that view persists, with millions of Americans knowing “that society is enriched through protecting the creations of individuals who make life better and more interesting through their genius and sweat equity.”
That belief is consistently reinforced and realized in tangible ways through legislative enactments, court decisions, and state, national and global enforcement efforts against property infringers.
Indeed, a good example of the latter (that is, concerted enforcement efforts) was recently chronicled in an article spotlighting copyright infringement, especially in the entertainment industry.
As that article pointed out, intellectual property enforcers at the government level — both domestically and globally — seem to have picked up their efforts to combat digital piracy and other forms of copyright misappropriation, with the campaign against infringers appearing “to have woken up from its long nap.”
Digital piracy is, of course, a flatly huge problem, both from a security standpoint and because the unapproved downloading and subsequent use of copyrighted materials steals from artists and creators and potentially dilutes their incentive to produce new work product.
And that has decidedly adverse implications in virtually every field of endeavor.
Government officials are obviously cognizant of that, as noted by a U.S. Department of Justice announcement earlier this month that more stringent enforcement efforts to combat intellectual property theft are on the way.
And they will certainly be welcomed if implemented as described. The DOJ and FBI will apparently work more closely with businesses fighting back against hacking efforts, and millions of dollars will be allocated to local enforcement agencies across the country.
Intellectual property infringement is a huge and persistent problem that the above-cited article states “is not close to closure.”
New enforcement efforts will obviously help, though, as can timely and knowledgeable assistance rendered in a given case by a proven business and commercial law attorney well-versed in IP-related matters.