WHEREAS, Americans are deeply concerned with job creation, economic stability, and expanding economic prosperity throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, international trade is a critical engine of growth for the U.S. economy; and

WHEREAS, the United States exported more than $2.5 trillion in goods and services accounting for 11.2 percent of our gross domestic product in 2021; and

WHEREAS, U.S. trade supports nearly 39 million jobs, such that one in every five U.S. jobs is linked to exports and imports of goods and services; and

WHEREAS, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) are crucial to the future of America’s innovation-based economy; and

WHEREAS, IP protections enabled American biopharmaceutical research companies to move quickly and effectively against COVID-19 and are the foundation for ongoing efforts to ensure that new treatments and vaccines are accessible throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, U.S. intellectual property-intensive industries account for 41 percent of domestic economic activity, generating $7.8 trillion in gross output and firms holding patents in the United States account for more than 90 percent of U.S. exports; and

WHERAS, IP-based industries, such as biopharmaceuticals, account for 63 million jobs, or 44 percent of all U.S. employment, and provide salaries averaging about 60 percent higher than workers in non-IP-based industries; and

WHEREAS, many of these jobs depend upon continued access to foreign markets and increased openness of those markets; and

WHEREAS, the failure to protect IPR has been shown to slow economic growth, including but not limited to foreign direct investment, and to inhibit innovation; and

WHEREAS, IPR are not uniformly or reliably supported in global markets, and in fact are actively undermined by weak legal frameworks and lack of effective enforcement; and

WHEREAS, studies have found that nations with laws protecting IPR also perform strongly in economic indicators such as household income, gross domestic product, and foreign direct investment;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that this state legislative chamber calls on the Office of the United States Trade Representative to negotiate trade agreements that require U.S. trading partners to provide intellectual property protections that are equivalent to those provided in the United States and to employ all available trade policy mechanisms to advance global support for IPR; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and to the Director of The United States Patent and Trademark Office.