It is time for the U.S. government to take global theft of U.S. intellectual property, especially digital content, much more seriously. A new ITIF report finds that the U.S. government can and should do more to support industry efforts to reduce digital piracy, a growing problem that threatens not only the robust production of digital content, but U.S. jobs.

ITIF President Rob Atkinson will be video blogging once a week for Internet Evolution on hot topics in IT and internet policy.

Please join ITIF for a debate on the recent Google Book Search settlement, its implications and the broader issues of orphan works and digital libraries.

Featuring a presentation from Ian Fletcher, Chief Executive, UK Office of Intellectual Property, followed by a discussion moderated by ITIF President Dr. Robert Atkinson. The Forum took place at ITIF offices in Washington, DC.

Congress is in the midst of the patent reform debate. Recently introduced legislation "The Patent Reform Act of 2007" (S. 1145 and H.R. 1908), would provide significant needed reforms to the system. A new ITIF paper examines the issue of patent reform and discusses recommendations. The paper focuses on three areas of reform. The first is patent delay. With over 700,000 pending patent applications in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) it can take 4 years to get a patent. Second, the paper looks at patent quality and the reasons why the PTO issues too many questionable patents. Finally, the paper examines a third problem: the dramatic increase in patent litigation and awards, which impose a significant tax on the U.S. innovation system.

The March 2007 decision by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to more than double the rates that webcasters pay to stream music will have a disastrous effect on Internet Radio. A careful review of the CRB decision reveals that not only is this rate increase unfair and undeserved, but it reflects a fundamentally broken system for determining copyright royalty rates. In this report, ITIF describes the current copyright system and the problems with the recent CRB ruling. Finally, ITIF presents a bold alternative to the current system that would allow copyright owners to establish fair and competitive rates for their music.

On Monday, March 26, 2007, New York Law School Professor Beth Noveck, Marc Williams, Governmental Programs Executive, IBM and Kaz Kazenske, Senior Director, Microsoft, spoke at an ITIF Policy Forum on the Peer to Patent Project and Patent Reform.