Software groups to plea for piracy guards against China

Tuesday morning kicks off a two-day series of hearings at the U.S. International Trade Commission concerning China and intellectual property, and the panel is going to get an earful from the software industry.

Executives from the Business Software Alliance, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association are all slated to appear in a panel presentation today.

BSA and SIIA are leading anti-piracy industry groups, and ITIC has made reform of China’s indigenous innovation policy — which promotes the commercialization of home-grown technology over foreign imports — a signature issue.

The U.S. ITC’s two-day event is part of a fact-finding mission the trade panel initiated at the request of the Senate Finance Committee.

In a letter dated April 20, the committee asked the U.S. ITC to launch twin investigations into the scope of intellectual property infringement in China and the economic impact of Chinese indigenous innovation policies on U.S. firms. The committee asked for analyses of the impact China’s policies are having on U.S. jobs and on the broader economy.