An Interview with Senator Chris Coons

We’ve seen a proliferation of counterfeit goods sold online during the COVID-19 pandemic as shoppers have increasingly turned to the Internet for their purchases. At the same time, Congress is working on the SHOP SAFE Act of which you’re a lead sponsor. How will this bill address counterfeiting on the Internet?

I am so excited at the potential for the SHOP SAFE Act to help combat the ever-growing problem of online sales of counterfeit goods. More Americans shop online than ever before, and the COVID-19 pandemic only increased American’s reliance on e-commerce. According to a study by Adobe [“Adobe Digital Economy Index” report], Americans are on track to spend $1 trillion online in 2022.

Unfortunately, the e-commerce ecosystem is overrun with unsafe counterfeit goods—car seats, bike helmets, spoiled infant formula, and tainted pharmaceuticals, to name a few. Some reports estimate that about one-quarter of U.S. consumers have unknowingly purchased a counterfeit item online. These counterfeit goods undermine the trust built between brand owners and consumers and are downright dangerous as well, putting the health and safety of Americans at risk.

The SHOP SAFE Act addresses this problem by incentivizing e-commerce providers to proactively keep counterfeit goods off their websites before they reach consumers’ hands. We heard in recent Senate and House Judiciary Committee hearings that the current efforts by private actors are insufficient to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods. Existing trademark law does not provide liability for e-commerce providers if a third party uses their platform to sell counterfeit products, even though traditional brick-and-mortar stores have long been subject to potential liability.

As we explained in the summary accompanying the introduction of the bill, the SHOP SAFE Act will encourage e-commerce providers to adopt anticounterfeiting best practices designed to screen out dangerous counterfeit goods before they are offered, in exchange for a safe harbor from contributory trademark infringement liability.

SHOP SAFE is a great example of Congress coming together to work in a bipartisan fashion. My House colleagues conducted multiple, exhaustive roundtables to bring together disparate views on the bill. The House Judiciary Committee then revised the bill and passed it in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner. Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and I are now collaboratively engaging stakeholders to continue fine-tuning the bill and address concerns to advance it in the Senate.

The United States is a world leader in terms of strong IP protection, to the benefit of brands, consumers, and society at large. For INTA Daily News readers around the world, please share your perspective on how effective IP legislation supports economic growth and innovation.

Our nation was founded on principles of innovation and invention. Patent and copyright systems are enshrined in our Constitution, and our current federal trademark system just celebrated its 75th anniversary. Strong IP laws encourage and reward the development of ideas and products that benefit consumers and our economy. By extension, strong IP systems must also provide adequate penalties to deter IP theft and rights violations. A robust combination of incentives and protections contributes to economic growth by creating jobs and the industries of the future.

Those benefits are not limited to our borders—the innovations and products that we develop here in the U.S. set standards for creators and entrepreneurs across the world, too. We must continue to assess how we can strengthen our IP systems to support and advance our existing robust American innovation and economic ecosystems to harness the benefits they provide for consumers, brand owners, and the global community.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs are the backbone of the U.S. economy and a key driver of American innovation. What do you see as the role of IP in this sector of the economy? How does the U.S. government support SMEs and entrepreneurs in terms of IP?

IP protection is vital to encourage innovation at all levels, but particularly for small and medium-sized entities. It takes significant financial investment to innovate and develop products and bring them to market, and SMEs count on robust IP rules to protect the ideas they develop and help them gain access to the resources needed to bring those ideas to market. If they cannot be confident that our IP systems will help safeguard their investment of time and money, they are less likely to pursue them in the first place. That’s why we constantly assess the impact of legislation and policy changes on all market players, with a particular emphasis on small and medium-sized entities.

The SHOP SAFE Act is a good example of that focus. As passed out of the House Judiciary Committee, the bill includes language to accommodate concerns about overburdening developing nascent or small platforms.

Footage used under license from Adobe Stock / sborisov