IPR Toolkit – Message from Ambassador Antonio O. Garza, Jr.

The United States Mission in Mexico recognizes the imperative of strong intellectual property rights protection (IPR) for American business, and is working to help the Government of Mexico find ways to improve IPR enforcement in Mexico. We know that stolen, pirated, and counterfeit goods undermine investment opportunities and can significantly impact market share for U.S. companies. We are also aware of the considerable efforts Mexico has made in recent years to improve IPR protection, although a lot of work remains. At the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, we have formed an interagency IPR working group that brings together Economic, Commercial, Homeland Security, and Public Diplomacy officers to implement a Mexico-wide IPR Action Plan. This IPR Toolkit is part of an integrated Action Plan developed by our Embassy team, which includes:

• Frequent U.S. Government engagement with Mexico on bilateral and multilateral IPR efforts, and strong encouragement to Mexico to expand cooperation with us. One component of this is the new Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) initiative, the most comprehensive initiative ever advanced to smash the criminal networks that traffic in fakes, stop trade in pirated and counterfeit goods at America's borders, block bogus goods around the world, and help small businesses secure and enforce their rights in overseas markets.
• Ongoing talks with the Mexican Government and industry leaders to assess the progress of IPR enforcement, identify reasons why problems persist, and share ideas for how to tackle those problems. We encourage Mexican Government and industry decision-makers to come together to design a common approach to protecting IPR in order to avoid diverging, industry-specific strategies that are difficult to implement.
• Constant contact with key Mexican leaders responsible for IPR enforcement to facilitate training, information exchange, and strategy development. For example, prosecutorial training led by the Department of Justice aims to sensitize Mexican judges and prosecutors to the scope of the IPR problem, provide hands-on instruction on how to try an IPR case, and promote best-practices exchanges between Mexican and American judicial experts. Operational training, led by the Department of Homeland Security, assists Mexican Customs to better identify and seize counterfeit goods at ports and border crossings, and educate officials on the methods of counterfeit goods importation used by criminal syndicates.
• Deployment of the Mission's public diplomacy resources to garner public support for intellectual property rights. This includes funding IPR speakers in academic and professional forums, inviting Mexican officials to participate in IPR-related international visitor programs, and conducting media outreach stressing the importance of IPR protection.

My intention is for this IPR Toolkit to provide useful information that explains the IPR environment in Mexico and the actions the U.S. Government is taking to encourage better IPR protection. The Toolkit contains material describing the scope of the IPR problem in Mexico, suggestions regarding what American companies can do to protect their IPR, and steps to consider after an infringement becomes known. The U.S. Government is committed to assisting American business in anyway we can, and we welcome your feedback on how to make this toolkit even more useful. I want to wish you all the best as we move forward in 2005.