DPE Applauds USTR’s 2024 Special 301 Report for Monitoring IP Protection Around the World
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Katie Barrows
Communications Director
P: 202-549-5991
kbarrows@dpeaflcio.org
WASHINGTON, Apr. 30, 2024 - Last week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual Special 301 Report, which details the findings of USTR’s review of intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement in countries around the world. Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) President Jennifer Dorning released the following statement on the report:
“I applaud Ambassador Tai, USTR staff, and interagency partners for their hard work on the 2024 Special 301 Report. Current information on global trends related to IP enforcement is important to union creative professionals. In today’s digital era, members of DPE’s affiliate unions depend on effective copyright enforcement around the world because they earn collectively bargained pay and contributions to their health insurance and pension plans from the legitimate global sales and licensing of the content they help create. Inadequate copyright enforcement, along with content theft, harms every day creative professionals due to lost jobs and hard-earned pay.
Ensuring effective global IP enforcement matters now more than ever given the advent of generative AI. Without safeguards and appropriate transparency, AI will be used as a sophisticated, deceptive tool for content theft and the unauthorized digital replication of individual’s voices and likenesses. Special 301 Reports can help ensure that the copyright and IP protections union creative professionals depend on for their economic livelihoods are not weakened, distorted, or ignored to unfairly benefit AI developers.
DPE reiterates its appreciation to USTR and the Biden-Harris Administration for its continued commitment to a trade policy that prioritizes the needs of professionals.”
About DPE
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) is a coalition of 24 unions representing over four million professional and technical union members. DPE affiliate unions represent professionals in over 300 occupations in education and healthcare; science, engineering, and technology; legal, business, and management; media, entertainment, and the arts; and public administration.