The Trump administration is determined to fight back against foreign governments that have been “screwing” American workers, companies and investors for decades, as the president colorfully put it during his recent address to global elites at the World Economic Forum.
So far, experts have fixated on the government’s most visible counteroffensive: the tariffs imposed over the past year. The president and his top advisers have consistently used these tariffs as a tool to repair supply chains and create more domestic markets sales and employment opportunities for American businesses and workers.
But behind the scenes, the administration is also quietly pressuring foreign countries to stop ignoring and weakening intellectual property protections for American companies and stripping them of foreign rights. sales opportunities.
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The U.S. economy is increasingly dependent on companies investing enormous amounts of time and capital into the risky research required to bring new technologies to market. Strong IP protection encourages and protects these investments – and all Americans benefit from the resulting economic growth and technological advances. IP-intensive industries support nearly half of U.S. GDP and more than 62 million jobs.
And that’s why, in the long run, the administration’s less prominent efforts to strengthen intellectual property rights protections could prove even more beneficial to American businesses, workers and consumers than the much-vaunted tariff policy.
Foreign governments’ abusive trade practices are especially damaging in the pharmaceutical industry. American companies dominate global drug development, but foreign governments undervalue these treatments through direct price controls, mandatory rebates, deliberate regulatory delays, and other tactics designed to artificially suppress spending on drugs invented and made in America. This free riding on American innovation means that the cost burden for that innovation is disproportionately passed on to American patients.
For example, the European Union recently adopted extensive changes to its “General Pharmaceutical Law,” which shortens the period of market exclusivity for new drugs and forces companies to overcome difficult regulatory hurdles to regain that exclusivity. In addition, the EU is considering new rules that would make it easier for governments to force companies to transfer their patented technologies.
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Mexico, meanwhile, has failed to fulfill key IP commitments it made under the USMCA trade deal signed during the first Trump administration. Our southern neighbor allows manufacturers of generic and biosimilars to bring their products to market prematurely without a reliable system to verify existing patents. As a result, U.S. biotech innovators often do not receive the timely notice and opportunity they need to defend their patent rights before competitors launch products. The United States should therefore keep Mexico on the Special 301 Report’s Priority Watch List and continue to apply pressure to ensure that Mexico meets its USMCA obligations ahead of the upcoming review of the agreement.
The government has already started pushing back on countries that are not adhering to their agreements in other ways. The country recently struck a deal with Britain that, in exchange for exempting British drugs from tariffs, requires Britain to limit the amount of revenue it brings back from biotech companies and ultimately double drug spending as a percentage of GDP. The government’s trade negotiators are pressuring other countries to make similar concessions.
Likewise, the administration has taken steps to prevent companies from importing products — from drugs to computer chips — into the United States if they infringe on American intellectual property.
Last summer, the Department of Justice and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) filed a statement of interest in an ongoing lawsuit between Samsung and Radian Memory Systems, a startup that has accused the Korean tech giant of stealing its patented storage technology. The DOJ and PTO warned that patent infringement could cause irreparable harm to American startups and suggested that courts should impose “injunctions” — legal orders that prevent companies like Samsung from selling stolen technologies — both to protect American innovation and to deter other “potential infringers.”
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In late February, the DOJ and PTO doubled down on this position – refiling a Statement of Interest in the case Collision Communications v. Samsung to reaffirm the right to seek injunctive relief.
Of course, more could be done. The White House could push its allies in Congress to pass the bipartisan RESTORE Patent Rights Act, which would make it easier for courts to issue injunctions when patents are violated. That would give American companies a significant advantage in their fight against foreign infringers.
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And the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative could consider placing the European Union on the special 301 watchlist, which names and shames trading partners that systematically violate the IP rights of U.S. companies. That would increase pressure on the EU to reconsider its current practices. Likewise, the White House could use the upcoming revision of the USMCA trade deal to pressure Mexico to honor its previous commitments.
The government’s tariffs could dominate the news cycle. But the quiet, whole-of-government effort to strengthen and defend American companies’ intellectual property rights against foreign abusers could prove just as important in the effort to reshape the global trading system — and make it work better for American innovators, workers and investors.
Andrei Iancu served as Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office from 2018 to 2021. He is co-founder and co-chair of the Council for Innovation Promotion.
