III 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. CON. RES. 87 

Expressing the sense of Congress that United States intellectual property 

rights must be protected globally. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 5, 2006 

Mr. BIDEN (for himself and Mr. SMITH) submitted the following concurrent 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that United States 

intellectual property rights must be protected globally. 

Whereas the United States is the world’s largest creator, producer, and exporter of copyrighted materials; 

Whereas this important sector of the United States economy 

continues to be at great risk due to the widespread unauthorized reproduction, distribution, and sale of copyrighted United States works, including motion pictures, 

home video and television programming, music and sound 

recordings, books, video games, and software; 

Whereas estimates point to a rate of intellectual property piracy of between 70 to 90 percent in some countries, with 

annual losses to the United States economy in the billions 

of dollars; 


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•SCON 87 IS

Whereas the major copyright industries are responsible for an 

estimated 6 percent of the Nation’s total gross domestic 

product and an annual employment rate of more than 3 

percent; 

Whereas strong overseas sales and exports by the major copyright industries are even more important as the United 

States trade deficit continues to increase, and as the 

United States economy grows more reliant on the generation of intellectual property and in services related thereto; 

Whereas the Congress is greatly concerned about the failure 

of some of the trading partners of the United States to 

meet their international obligations with respect to intellectual property protection; 

Whereas in the Russian Federation, perpetrators of piracy, 

including one of the largest commercial Internet pirates 

in the world, are permitted to operate without meaningful 

hindrance from the Russian Government, and a number 

of factories located on government property produce pirated products; 

Whereas the Russian Federation is now considering the adoption of a civil code that would annul the country’s existing intellectual property law, and incorporate principles 

that do not conform to its international obligations; 

Whereas the Senate and the House of Representatives have 

both overwhelmingly passed legislation expressing the 

sense of the Congress that the Russian Federation must 

significantly improve the protection of intellectual property as part of its effort to accede to the World Trade 

Organization and to maintain eligibility in the generalized 

system of preferences (GSP) program; 


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Whereas markets in the People’s Republic of China are replete with pirated versions of United States movies, 

sound recordings, business software, and video games, resulting in over $2,000,000,000 in losses each year to the 

United States economy; 

Whereas the People’s Republic of China has made a number 

of commitments to the United States which it has yet to 

meet, including pledges to significantly reduce piracy 

rates, increase criminal prosecutions of intellectual property rights infringements, reduce exports of infringing 

goods, improve national police coordination, and join 

global Internet treaties; 

Whereas the People’s Republic of China and the Russian 

Federation export thousands of pirated versions of products of the United States to other countries; 

Whereas Mexico has a strong market for pirated goods, with 

thousands of street vendors offering pirated products 

throughout the country; 

Whereas Canada has become a source of camcorder piracy, 

has failed to bring its copyright law into conformity with 

international standards, and has failed to adequately prevent pirated products from other parts of the world from 

entering the country; 

Whereas India can further improve copyright protections, 

particularly with regard to enforcement, deterrent sentencing, and coordination of national efforts; 

Whereas Malaysia continues to be a leading source of pirated 

entertainment software and other copyrighted materials 

produced for export; and 

Whereas steps must be taken to ensure that the rights of creators and distributors are protected abroad and that creVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:00 Apr 07, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC87.IS SC87

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ative industries in the United States continue to flourish: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 

2 concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that— 

3 (1) the United States should not complete any 

4 agreement relating to the accession of the Russian 

5 Federation to the World Trade Organization until 

6 the Russian Federation takes concrete steps to ad7 dress widespread intellectual property violations, in8 cluding— 

9 (A) the closure and seizure of factories and 

10 machinery used for piracy; 

11 (B) imposition of meaningful penal sanc12 tions; 

13 (C) investigation and prosecution of orga14 nized criminal piracy syndicates; and 

15 (D) rejection of proposals that would un16 dermine its existing intellectual property rights 

17 regime and retreat further from global stand18 ards; 

19 (2) the People’s Republic of China should fun20 damentally change its intellectual property rights en21 forcement model by significantly increasing the ap22 plication of criminal sanctions against major copy23 right pirates and imposing effective deterrent pen24 alties; 


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1 (3) Mexico, Canada, India, and Malaysia should 

2 work in cooperation with the United States Govern3 ment and industries in the United States to address 

4 growing piracy problems within their borders; 

5 (4) the failure of the countries listed in para6 graph (3) to act and protect against the theft of 

7 United States intellectual property will have political 

8 and economic consequences with regard to relations 

9 between these countries and the United States; and 

10 (5) the President should use all effective rem11 edies and solutions to protect the intellectual prop12 erty rights of United States persons and entities, 

13 and maintain policies that vigorously respond to the 

14 failure by other countries to abide by international 

15 standards of protection or to otherwise provide ade16 quate and effective protection of intellectual property 

17 as provided under United States law. 

Æ 


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