Strong IP Rights Important in Climate Change Negotiations
Nov 6, 2009
Property Rights Alliance (PRA) praised Senators for signing on to a letter urging the Obama Administration to protect intellectual property (IP) in continued negotiations over climate change policy. The letter was signed by forty-two Republican and Democrat Senators.
“Strong protection of property rights is key to long-term economic growth and prosperity. The Property Rights Alliance applauds the bipartisan group of forty-two Senators for recognizing the importance of IP protections to American workers and innovators,” stated Kelsey Zahourek, executive director of the Property Rights Alliance.
The letter comes weeks before the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), one of the main entities in the fight against climate change, is set to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to continue negotiations on a global pact to address climate change. Throughout the negotiations, there has been strong international pressure to weaken IP protections by advocating the transfer of technology between countries through a removal of IP.
“At the base of any movement to address climate change lies the green or clean technology industry, where innovators work to provide more energy efficient technologies,” continued Zahourek, “Forsaking IP protections would limit the possibility of future invention and improvement in exchange for trivial short-term benefits. This would be a grave and unfortunate error and detrimental to the long-term economic health of the United States.”