Victoria Espinel tapped for IP position (Hollywood Reporter)
President Barack Obama on Friday afternoon named Victoria Espinel the new U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, a position that will target, among other areas, the rampant piracy that has plagued the entertainment industry.
Congress created the position, which is part of the Office of Management and Budget, in 2008 to augment American efforts to prevent the exploitation of pirated or counterfeited movies, music and software, as well as other IP.
Espinel is the founder and president of Bridging the Innovation Divide, a not-for-profit focused on the “innovation divide.” From 2007-09, Espinel was a visiting assistant professor at the George Mason University School of Law, focusing on IP and international trade issues. She has further served as an adviser on IP issues to the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Finance Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. In 2005, Espinel also became the first-ever Assistant United States Trade Representative for Intellectual Property and Innovation at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, serving as chief U.S. trade negotiator on those subjects.
“Throughout a long and distinguished career working on intellectual property issues, Victoria has been on the front lines of efforts to protect the ideas that are the basis of our innovation economy,” said Mark T. Esper, executive vp of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center. “Under Victoria’s leadership, intellectual property protection, promotion, and enforcement will now be rightly elevated to the highest level of the executive branch, an important sign about the administration’s commitment to protecting jobs throughout America’s IP-intensive industries.”
