February Highlights: Defending American Inventors Through the Special 301 Report
In just a few months, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will release the 2026 Special 301 Report — an annual assessment of global intellectual property laws, policies, and practices. The Special 301 Report is a cornerstone of U.S. innovation policy and a critical tool for defending American innovators. By identifying other countries whose IP policies are lacking or harmful by placing those countries on the report’s Watch List and Priority Watch List, U.S. policymakers can exert diplomatic pressure and set the stage for formal trade action that restores fair and predictable IP enforcement for U.S. companies and innovators operating abroad. As global threats to American innovators have multiplied over the past year, the need for a 2026 report that appropriately calls out concerning policies has only grown more urgent.
American companies whose technologies power global communications standards are facing a push in many countries, including China, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, to undermine the standard-essential patent licensing negotiation framework that ensures they receive fair compensation when their innovations are used by others. Life sciences companies confront growing market-access barriers and are often denied the full scope of IP protection needed to justify long-term R&D investment. Counterfeiters continue to flood global markets with fake goods that undermine U.S. companies and erode incentives to innovate. Threats like these endanger America’s IP-intensive industries that account for over 40% of U.S. economic output, support 62 million jobs, and anchor U.S. technological and scientific leadership.
Throughout February, C4IP advocated for a forceful, comprehensive Special 301 Report and informed USTR about the foreign policies harming U.S. inventors. Through public comments, testimony, and follow-up engagement with USTR, C4IP laid out a comprehensive roadmap for how this year’s report can defend U.S. jobs, protect companies investing in the next generation of medicines and technologies, and promote a more stable and competitive global innovation ecosystem.
- C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen submitted public comments to the U.S. Trade Representative as part of the 2026 Special 301 Review, highlighting threats to IP from multiple jurisdictions — including the EU, UK, China, India, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico — that jeopardize American innovation and warrant Watch List or Priority Watch List designations in the final report.
- C4IP’s comments were featured in a Well News preview of the Special 301 Subcommittee’s hearing on February 18, which noted that C4IP was among several organizations urging USTR to take a stronger stance on IP enforcement.
- C4IP’s criticisms of recent developments in UK and EU standard-essential patent policy, which could shift SEP licensing practices away from a market-negotiation model and toward unilateral government rate-setting, were cited in analyses by IAM and MLex covering the international backlash to those policies.
- C4IP Chief Policy Officer and Counsel Jamie Simpson provided testimony before USTR’s Special 301 Subcommittee, outlining why the 2026 Special 301 Report should include Watch List or Priority Watch List designations for several jurisdictions whose recent laws or proposed policies undermine American innovators’ IP rights.
- Simpson’s testimony was covered in an IP Fray analysis of stakeholder concerns raised at the hearing.
- C4IP submitted a supplemental briefing to USTR following the February 18 hearing, addressing Subcommittee questions and expanding on concerns regarding the EU’s revised General Pharmaceutical Legislation (GPL), Brazil’s Productive Development Partnerships (PDP) system, shortcomings in Canada’s patent term adjustment and extension frameworks, and SEP-related judicial overreach in certain jurisdictions.
Additional Coalition Updates
- On February 26-28, C4IP Co-Chair David Kappos and C4IP Chief Policy Officer and Counsel Jamie Simpson were speakers on IP law panel discussions at the 19th Annual University of Akron School of Law Winter Institute in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
- Kappos’s comments were featured in MLex’s coverage of the panel.
- On February 19, C4IP and the Alliance of U.S. Startups & Inventors for Jobs (USIJ) hosted a virtual roundtable on the Trump administration’s intellectual property and trade policy, featuring USPTO Deputy Director Coke Stewart and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Rick Switzer alongside C4IP Co-Chair Andrei Iancu and former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish.
- On February 12, C4IP published a blog post outlining its support for the proposed RESTORE Patent Rights Act, arguing that the bill’s restoration of injunctive relief as the default remedy for patent infringement is necessary to give inventors — especially small inventors and startups — meaningful protection against infringers.
- On February 10, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen issued a statement applauding Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis for introducing the bipartisan Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR) Act, which would protect creators’ rights by requiring AI developers to disclose copyrighted works used to train generative AI models, enabling creators to seek appropriate compensation for the use of their work.
- C4IP’s support for the bill was noted in a Law360 article covering the legislation’s introduction.
- On February 5, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen gave a television interview to WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut, warning consumers about the health and financial dangers posed by counterfeit Super Bowl merchandise and offering tips on how to avoid purchasing fakes.
- On February 3, C4IP’s January event at UC Irvine Beall Applied Innovation, “Orange County Innovation Ecosystem: How Strong Patent Protections Enable Our County to Thrive,” was the subject of a UC Irvine article that touted the importance of IP protections in driving economic growth in Orange County and across America.
- On February 2, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen gave an interview to KTNV in Las Vegas about the threats that counterfeit products pose to innovators and consumers ahead of the Super Bowl.