AAFA and Intellectual Property Rights

Recent government statistics have shown apparel and footwear products make up half of all pirated goods exported to the United States. While many believe that the purchase of counterfeit clothes and shoes is a victimless crime, the revenue made through the sale of these goods have been shown to fund terrorist, organized crime and other illicit activities in the U.S. and overseas.

Economically, fake products steal business from legitimate companies, which prohibit these companies from being able to create more jobs and, in fact, have resulted in the retail sector being forced to lay off hard-working employees. Also, the transaction of counterfeit goods essentially evades taxes that support important government programs for many people.

Congress and the Administration continue to be active on efforts to strengthen intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement through a number of initiatives domestically and internationally. In early 2007, the Administration initiated the first-ever WTO case on enforcement several months ago when it filed two IPR-related cases on China. More recently, the USTR identified a series of countries which remain deficient in their IPR practices through its annual special 301 report on April 30, 2007.

AAFA is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce’s Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (CACP) (Learn more about CACP), serving on its Legislative Task Force. In this capacity, AAFA helps to coordinate, establish and craft the legislative agenda of the CACP. The coalition has worked with Congress to draft and introduced the following bills: the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act, the Bayh/Voinovich IP legislation, the Leahy/Cornyn IP Enforcement Act of 2007 and the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act of 2007.

AAFA is extremely dedicated to the protection of its members’ brands, trademarks and innovative ideas as the world’s leaders in the apparel and footwear industries. AAFA continues to work with Congress, the Administration and our foreign trade partners to ensure that our members’ products are able to legitimately compete in the global market.