SEATTLE,WA–(Marketwired – August 15, 2017) – Yesterday, President Donald Trump tasked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer with the determination of the level of need for an open investigation into the intellectual property practices of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In an event hosted at the White House yesterday afternoon, President Trump asserted the importance of defending innovation and maintaining an equitable trade relationship with the PRC.

INVNT/IP, a membership-based consortium of companies and governments worldwide, welcomes the decision to re-examine the US-China trade relationship.

“For years, the PRC has practiced a comprehensive policy of intellectual property theft and associated protectionism,” noted Evan Anderson, CEO of INVNT/IP. “Over the past decade, INVNT/IP has tracked government programs funded by, supported by, or otherwise affiliated with PRC leadership that steal crown-jewel intellectual property from innovators worldwide, restrict domestic Chinese market share to global firms, violate WTO regulations, and use the placement of propaganda and financial leverage in the innovating world to subdue the potential response. This move to re-examine the US trade relationship with the PRC is both critical and long overdue; inventing firms and nations should look forward to the decision to open an investigation as a clear next step in enhancing US economic security.”

The United States maintains the capability to address issues of predatory trade relationships through structures such as Special 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which “provides the United States Trade Representative with the authority to identify foreign countries that deny adequate and effective protection of IPR or fair and equitable market access to US persons that rely on IP protection.”

The USTR may, after investigation, declare a foreign country to be a “Priority Foreign Country,” enabling the United States to take action regarding damaging trade practices perpetrated by the selected nation-state.

INVNT/IP is a global consortium of executives, innovators, and policymakers working in concert to reduce the occurrence of nation-sponsored theft of “crown jewel” IP: the intellectual property that makes your company, government and economy function. For four years we have been working together, often behind the scenes, to protect the secrets that drive every part of the roughly $75T in global GDP today.

The INVNT/IP Global Consortiumâ„¢, an SNSâ„¢ initiative, is a network of private firms and individuals that seeks to reduce nation-sponsored intellectual property theft worldwide.

Website: www.invntip.com, www.stratnews.com, www.futureinreview.com