What Does Intellectual Property Attache Act (IP Attache Act) (IPPA) Mean?
The Intellectual Property Attaché Act (IP Attaché Act or IPPA) is a new anti-piracy bill introduced July 9, 2012. IPPA's current text provides that oversight of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Overseas Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Attaché program would transfer to the Commerce Department.
News of the bill generated an immediate wave of concern among opponents of the recently stalled Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), that IPPA could be a repackaged version of SOPA and that effectively, IPPA could work like SOPA in the context of foreign law.
IPPA followed a rash of similar bills introduced beginning in mid-2011, including SOPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the PRECISE Act of 2011.
IPPA is unofficially known as the Zombie SOPA Bill and SOPA 2.