Op-Eds

In a new piece for Newsweek, Mircea Geoană, former NATO deputy secretary general and president of the Aspen Institute Romania, and Andrei Iancu, C4IP co-chair and former USPTO Director, warn that protecting intellectual property (IP) is not merely a trade issue, but a national security imperative. Strong and enforceable IP rights give innovators the confidence to pursue risky breakthroughs, from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence systems. They point out that strong IP protections have long underpinned Western security. During the Cold War, for instance, breakthroughs like stealth technology, GPS, and satellite communications were made possible by a strong innovation ecosystem that fostered discovery and entrepreneurship. While Western nations are busy debating the merits of IP protections, China now leads in 57 of 64 critical technologies and issues nearly three times more patents than the United States — advances driven in part by systematic IP theft. If Western nations fail to enforce strong protections, they risk ceding military and economic advantages to foreign adversaries. “IP rights are the load-bearing walls of innovation,” they explain. “If they are weak or inconsistently enforced, vulnerabilities emerge that directly threaten NATO’s technological superiority.” Read the full op-ed here: https://www.newsweek.com/defend-nations-nato-must-defend-innovation-opinion-2115891