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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) formally launched IP Protection Matters, a new podcast interview series examining notable issues related to the protection of and threats to intellectual property (IP). 

IP Protection Matters is hosted by Renee Giachino, CFIF’s general counsel and longtime radio show and podcast host. It includes interviews with leading legal scholars, policy experts, public officials and others about the latest cutting-edge research, legislative issues, regulatory activity and other notable IP-related topics.  

Initial guests on the IP Protection Matters podcast include Andrei Iancu, Former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Brad Watts, Vice President for Patents and Innovation Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center, James Edwards, Founder and Executive Director of Conservatives for Property Rights, and Patrick Kilbride, noted expert in IP and innovation policy and current Policy Fellow with the Center for American Principles, among others. 

“Intellectual property rights – patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets – alongside physical property rights, offer the critical distinguishing factor explaining American Exceptionalism,” said Ms.  Giachino. “Our Founding Fathers valued IP so much that they specifically protected it in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. President Abraham Lincoln, a patent owner himself, later observed that IP ‘added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius.’ 

“I’m excited about the new IP Protection Matters podcast and engaging with some of the brightest and most knowledgeable IP experts in the nation to highlight the underreported importance of IP and examine ways to protect it in order to assure future American preeminence,” Giachino said. 

“Unfortunately, IP rights and protections are under increasing and constant attack,” added CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella. “From politically motivated efforts to extinguish existing patents held by inventors to jeopardizing the economic incentive for continued innovation going forward, significant threats to IP protections exist at all levels of government – both domestically and abroad. The IP Protection Matters podcast provides an approachable and engaging platform to analyze and discuss these important issues,” Mazzella concluded.

Listen to all interviews on the IP Protection Matters website and on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. IP Protection Matters will be accessible on additional podcast platforms in the coming weeks.  

Founded in 1998, CFIF is a constitutional and free-market advocacy organization with over 300,000 supporters and activists nationwide.

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