Counterfeiting and Piracy Awareness

August 21, 2007, Los Angeles, California
Contact: Los Angeles Foreign Press Center
Telephone: 310-235-7693; email: fpcla@cruznet.net

The Los Angeles Foreign Press Center arranged for LA-based foreign correspondents to attend a 1-day media tour on Counterfeiting and Piracy Awareness.  With the cooperation of DHS-CBP and ICE, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, DOC, and DOJ, the Center increased international media coverage of the costs of global piracy to legitimate trade, consumer safety, and intellectual property rights/rule of law.  Ten journalists representing TV, Radio, and print outlets from China, Taiwan, Russia, Sweden, and VOA International participated on the one day tour in Los Angeles/Long Beach.  After a multiple agency briefing, the group toured the nation’s largest port complex’s container warehouse and observed agents detect frauds and display some of the seized contraband.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce chose Los Angeles—the model city in on the protection of intellectual property rights—to launch a week long campaign that will expand to include other U.S. cities in 2008.