Industry Intellectual Property Enforcers Named To New Posts

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) today announced the appointment of a new director of intellectual property and trade, effective 7 December. Meanwhile, in the United States, the new coordinator for IP enforcement has been cleared.

The new IFPMA IP and trade director is Andrew Jenner, a British citizen and former UK Intellectual Property Office official, his last position being head of IP Crime Policy. At the UKIPO, he helped develop the European Union Regulation on the compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical products for export. He has engineering and law degrees from the University of Wales.

Jenner takes over direction of IP and trade for IFPMA from Jacques Gorlin, a Washington lobbyist involved in the negotiation of World Trade Organization intellectual property rules, who covered the function for IFPMA on a temporary basis as a consultant over the past year.

Separately, the United States Senate last week confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Victoria Espinel as the first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC).

The nomination was acclaimed by rightsholders groups like the American Intellectual Property Law Association as “a commitment to improving the global enforcement” of IP rights. The US Chamber of Commerce also praised Espinel nomination saying that “the newly confirmed US IPEC is entrusted to craft a national IP strategy.” The Motion Picture Association of America joined the chorus of praise, as did Microsoft. Public Knowledge also congratulated Espinel and said they believe she “will be fair in her approach to intellectual property enforcement issues.”

Espinel, who served as deputy assistant US Trade Representative for intellectual property and as associate general counsel, has worked for various major law firms, and most recently has been an industry consultant focused on innovation and IP.

She also founded Bridging the Innovation Divide, a non-profit foundation “focused on addressing the innovation divide,” according to the White House website.