SOPA Author Tinkering With Global U.S. Copyright Officers

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) may have put the Stop Online Piracy Act on hold, but he's not backing away from copyright and intellectual property rights.

Far from it, actually -- he's authored a draft bill that, as written, would bring copyright attachs stationed at U.S. embassies to protect American intellectual property into the control of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Those attachs have been stationed in several countries, including Thailand, China, Russia and India, since 2006 in a partnership between the Patent and Trademark Office and the Department of Commerce.

The draft legislation also creates a handful of new positions at the United States Patent and Trademark Of…
Continue reading...

More About: ACTA, Politics, SOPA, US, congress, lamar smith