Title 15 — Commerce and TradeRelease 119-73not60
§8113 Joint Strategic Plan
Title 15 › Chapter 107— PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS › Subchapter I— COORDINATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING OF FEDERAL EFFORT AGAINST COUNTERFEITING AND INFRINGEMENT › § 8113
Summary
The IPEC must write and update a joint strategic plan to fight counterfeit and pirated goods. The plan must aim to cut fake goods from supply chains, find and fix enforcement weaknesses and duplicated work across federal agencies, share law-enforcement information as allowed by law to help arrest and prosecute offenders, break up domestic and international counterfeiting networks, help other countries enforce intellectual property laws, work with other nations on international standards, and protect U.S. intellectual property overseas by exchanging information and consulting with foreign agencies and industry groups. IPEC had to send the first plan within 12 months after October 13, 2008, and must send a new plan by December 31 of every third year after that to the House and Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees. While making the plan, IPEC coordinates agency staff and may consult private experts. Agencies must name experienced people to help and must share relevant information consistent with privacy and Justice Department rules. Each plan must list priorities, how to meet them, needed resources, yearly performance measures, an analysis of economic and health/safety threats from IP violations, which agencies will carry out each priority, a way to coordinate and oversee those agencies, and other needed details. The plan also must include training and technical help programs for foreign governments (guided by the U.S. Trade Representative’s country list under section 2242(a) of title 19) and ways to measure results. The plan must be posted on the White House website and made available to the public.
Full Legal Text
Title 15, §8113
Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)The objectives of the Joint Strategic Plan against counterfeiting and infringement that is referred to in section 8111(b)(1)(B) of this title (in this section referred to as the “joint strategic plan”) are the following:
(1)Reducing counterfeit and infringing goods in the domestic and international supply chain.
(2)Identifying and addressing structural weaknesses, systemic flaws, or other unjustified impediments to effective enforcement action against the financing, production, trafficking, or sale of counterfeit or infringing goods, including identifying duplicative efforts to enforce, investigate, and prosecute intellectual property crimes across the Federal agencies and Departments that comprise the Advisory Committee and recommending how such duplicative efforts may be minimized. Such recommendations may include recommendations on how to reduce duplication in personnel, materials, technologies, and facilities utilized by the agencies and Departments responsible for the enforcement, investigation, or prosecution of intellectual property crimes.
(3)Ensuring that information is identified and shared among the relevant departments and agencies, to the extent permitted by law, including requirements relating to confidentiality and privacy, and to the extent that such sharing of information is consistent with Department of Justice and other law enforcement protocols for handling such information, to aid in the objective of arresting and prosecuting individuals and entities that are knowingly involved in the financing, production, trafficking, or sale of counterfeit or infringing goods.
(4)Disrupting and eliminating domestic and international counterfeiting and infringement networks.
(5)Strengthening the capacity of other countries to protect and enforce intellectual property rights, and reducing the number of countries that fail to enforce laws preventing the financing, production, trafficking, and sale of counterfeit and infringing goods.
(6)Working with other countries to establish international standards and policies for the effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.
(7)Protecting intellectual property rights overseas by—
(A)working with other countries and exchanging information with appropriate law enforcement agencies in other countries relating to individuals and entities involved in the financing, production, trafficking, or sale of counterfeit and infringing goods;
(B)ensuring that the information referred to in subparagraph (A) is provided to appropriate United States law enforcement agencies in order to assist, as warranted, enforcement activities in cooperation with appropriate law enforcement agencies in other countries; and
(C)building a formal process for consulting with companies, industry associations, labor unions, and other interested groups in other countries with respect to intellectual property enforcement.
(b)Not later than 12 months after October 13, 2008, and not later than December 31 of every third year thereafter, the IPEC shall submit the joint strategic plan to the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, and to the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
(c)During the development of the joint strategic plan, the IPEC—
(1)shall provide assistance to, and coordinate the meetings and efforts of, the appropriate officers and employees of departments and agencies represented on the advisory committee appointed under section 8111(b)(3) of this title who are involved in intellectual property enforcement; and
(2)may consult with private sector experts in intellectual property enforcement in furtherance of providing assistance to the members of the advisory committee appointed under section 8111(b)(3) of this title.
(d)In the development and implementation of the joint strategic plan, the heads of the departments and agencies identified under section 8111(b)(3) of this title shall—
(1)designate personnel with expertise and experience in intellectual property enforcement matters to work with the IPEC and other members of the advisory committee; and
(2)share relevant department or agency information with the IPEC and other members of the advisory committee, including statistical information on the enforcement activities of the department or agency against counterfeiting or infringement, and plans for addressing the joint strategic plan, to the extent permitted by law, including requirements relating to confidentiality and privacy, and to the extent that such sharing of information is consistent with Department of Justice and other law enforcement protocols for handling such information.
(e)Each joint strategic plan shall include the following:
(1)A description of the priorities identified for carrying out the objectives in the joint strategic plan, including activities of the Federal Government relating to intellectual property enforcement.
(2)A description of the means to be employed to achieve the priorities, including the means for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal Government’s enforcement efforts against counterfeiting and infringement.
(3)Estimates of the resources necessary to fulfill the priorities identified under paragraph (1).
(4)The performance measures to be used to monitor results under the joint strategic plan during the following year.
(5)An analysis of the threat posed by violations of intellectual property rights, including the costs to the economy of the United States resulting from violations of intellectual property laws, and the threats to public health and safety created by counterfeiting and infringement.
(6)An identification of the departments and agencies that will be involved in implementing each priority under paragraph (1).
(7)A strategy for ensuring coordination among the departments and agencies identified under paragraph (6), which will facilitate oversight by the executive branch of, and accountability among, the departments and agencies responsible for carrying out the strategy.
(8)Such other information as is necessary to convey the costs imposed on the United States economy by, and the threats to public health and safety created by, counterfeiting and infringement, and those steps that the Federal Government intends to take over the period covered by the succeeding joint strategic plan to reduce those costs and counter those threats.
(f)The joint strategic plan shall include programs to provide training and technical assistance to foreign governments for the purpose of enhancing the efforts of such governments to enforce laws against counterfeiting and infringement. With respect to such programs, the joint strategic plan shall—
(1)seek to enhance the efficiency and consistency with which Federal resources are expended, and seek to minimize duplication, overlap, or inconsistency of efforts;
(2)identify and give priority to those countries where programs of training and technical assistance can be carried out most effectively and with the greatest benefit to reducing counterfeit and infringing products in the United States market, to protecting the intellectual property rights of United States persons and their licensees, and to protecting the interests of United States persons otherwise harmed by violations of intellectual property rights in those countries;
(3)in identifying the priorities under paragraph (2), be guided by the list of countries identified by the United States Trade Representative under section 2242(a) of title 19; and
(4)develop metrics to measure the effectiveness of the Federal Government’s efforts to improve the laws and enforcement practices of foreign governments against counterfeiting and infringement.
(g)The joint strategic plan shall be posted for public access on the website of the White House, and shall be disseminated to the public through such other means as the IPEC may identify.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
15 U.S.C. § 8113
Title 15 — Commerce and Trade
Last Updated
Apr 3, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60