LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION memorializing the President, the Federal Trade
Commission and the United States Congress to strictly enforce United
States trade laws to protect domestic information technology and intel-
lectual property rights and address unfair competition in the market-
place generated by the institutionalized theft of information technology
and intellectual property

WHEREAS, The innovation economy has constituted the backbone of the
United States economy for more than seventy years; and
WHEREAS, Intellectual property and innovation play a central role in
driving productivity, employment and overall growth of the U.S. economy,
as well as New York State's economy; and
WHEREAS, The United States Commerce Department reports that technolog-
ical innovation has been associated with approximately three-quarters of
the United States' average annual growth since the mid-1940s; and
WHEREAS, Royalties and license fees for United States intellectual
property and technology yielded a $64.6 billion trade surplus as recent-
ly as 2009; and
WHEREAS, The rapid rise in technological developments by developing
nations has presented American businesses with robust new market oppor-
tunities; and
WHEREAS, Some of these countries have fostered indigenous policies
that incentivize the theft of intellectual property rights, providing an
unfair competitive advantage over American competitors; and
WHEREAS, The United States International Trade Commission has identi-
fied several developing nations as the primary sources of intellectual
property rights infringement in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The United States International Trade Commission reports that
United States' technology companies lose billions in sales, royalties
and license fees to developing nations each year due to intellectual
property rights infringement; and
WHEREAS, Intellectual property rights infringement, including
violations of copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets, reduces
market opportunities and profits for U.S. firms and undermine their
global competitiveness; and
WHEREAS, The Federal Trade Commission is the primary enforcement agen-
cy for the protection of intellectual property rights; and
WHEREAS, A bipartisan group of 39 State Attorneys General wrote to the
Federal Trade Commission on November 4, 2011, requesting that it use its
powers to first investigate the use of stolen information technology by
certain companies and how such thefts help these companies gain an
unfair competitive advantage in their respective markets and then seek
ways to stop such practices; and
WHEREAS, A bipartisan group of United States Senators from the Small
Business and Entrepreneurship Committee wrote the Federal Trade Commis-
sion on April 12, 2012, urging it to use its powers to stop the theft of
information technology and intellectual property; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize the President, the Federal Trade Commission and the United
States Congress to strictly enforce United States trade laws to protect
domestic information technology and intellectual property rights and
address unfair competition in the marketplace generated by the institu-
tionalized theft of information technology and intellectual property;
and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the President of the United States, the President of the
Senate of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives

of the United States, the Director of the Federal Trade Commission, and
to each member of the Congress of the United States from the State of
New York.