Chamber of Commerce: Strict IP enforcement would boost economy

A new report commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ties strong intellectual property protections with higher wages, greater productivity and faster job creation. The study, released Monday by NDP Consulting, finds that certain "intellectual-property intensive" industries like computer manufacturing and aerospace engineering fare better in states that aggressively protect creators and their creations. But the Center's new study seems to run somewhat contrary to another report, released earlier this month by the Government Accountability Office. That study also predicted that piracy, in particular, could harm the economy, but it found the "illicit nature of counterfeiting and piracy makes estimating the economic impact of IP infringements extremely difficult...""Three widely cited U.S. government estimates of economic losses resulting from counterfeiting cannot be substantiated due to the absence of underlying studies," the GAO clarified. "Each method (of measuring) has limitations, and most experts observed that it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the economy-wide impacts."