Department of Commerce's Office of Intellectual Property Rights (OIPR)
The Department of Commerce’s OIPR is housed within the agency’s International Trade Administration. This office helps U.S. rights holders protect and enforce their intellectual property rights in foreign markets. OIPR participates in multilateral and bilateral dialogues to promote U.S. IPR trade policy internationally and monitors countries’ compliance with intellectual property rights-related trade agreement obligations. This ensures that U.S. companies enjoy access to foreign markets and adequate intellectual property rights protection and enforcement abroad. If individuals experience difficulties protecting or enforcing abroad, OIPR experts can help them by suggesting strategies to evaluate the problem and partnering with Washington, D.C.-based agencies and U.S. embassies around the world to pursue resolution. OIPR also has worked with U.S. government and private sector partners to develop a number of tools and resources to assist U.S. rights holders, including an educational training module on intellectual property rights, country-specific toolkits, and access to volunteer attorneys for a free one-hour consultation.