Turning a Dream Into a Job With IP
By Trinh Nguyen
At last night’s Academy of Country Music Awards, married musicians Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton took home song of the year honors for their hit, “Over You.”
The songwriting award, intensely personal in this case as the song is about Shelton losing his older brother, highlights the importance of creative intellectual property (IP), for established musicians and undiscovered hopefuls alike. In an op-ed in The Tennessean, the U.S. Chamber’s Mark Elliot and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Catherine Glover, write:
In no place is this more evident than in Nashville, where anyone from budding songwriter to established superstar has the ability to turn music from a dream into a job. IP rights fuel the creative genius of our homegrown talent and attract businesses from around the country and the world to invest in our people.
Elliot and Glover go on to discuss the more dangerous consequences of IP theft:
IP theft is a huge concern for businesses and industries of all sizes. Today, stealing creative products can be measured by clicks of the mouse as well as by patent and trademark infringement, such as fake car parts, counterfeit sporting goods or phony plastics. And the occurrence is all too commonplace. With $650 billion lost annually to counterfeited products and pirated goods worldwide, it is imperative to enlist the assistance of enforcement agencies, such as Customs and Border Protection and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, to help fight this bleed on our economy.
To read the complete op-ed, click over to The Tennessean.
