ERIC H. SMITH is President of the International Intellectual Property Alliance â (IIPA), a coalition of seven U.S. trade associations representing over 1900 companies comprising the U.S. copyright-based industries – the motion picture, business and entertainment software, music and recording and book and journal publishing industries.
Since co-founding the IIPA in 1984, he has represented the IIPA before U.S. and foreign governments with the primary objective of opening foreign markets to U.S. copyrighted products and reducing piracy levels through improved legal protection and enforcement. He was the principal representative of the copyright industries in the WTO/TRIPS and NAFTA intellectual property negotiations and at the Diplomatic Conference leading to the adoption of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
Eric Smith is also Managing Partner of the Washington, DC law firm of Smith & Metalitz, LLP. The firm specializes in global and domestic copyright, trade, trademark, entertainment and information law and policy advocacy. Prior to 1986, he practiced law with several private law firms and with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), where from 1980-82, he served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. In 1986, Mr. Smith formed his own practice, specializing in international copyright matters, and on January 1, 1995, he joined with Steven J. Metalitz, formerly Vice President and General Counsel of the Information Industry Association, to form Smith & Metalitz, LLP.
A native of California, Mr. Smith holds a J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall, 1967) and received his B.A. degree from Stanford University (1964). He also holds a M.A. degree from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University (1968), where he specialized in international law and economics. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).
He serves as Chairman of the IFAC-3, the Executive Branch's trade advisory committee on intellectual property and is a member of IFAC-4, which formally advises the U.S. Government on e-commerce issues. He is a former trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and formerly Chairman of the D.C. Bar's Committee on Copyright. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Federal Communications Bar Association and the Computer Law Association. Mr. Smith has written several articles on communications and international copyright and has lectured worldwide on many subjects related to domestic and international copyright, U.S. trade policy and intellectual property and the new technologies.
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