The Trump administration is moving beyond headlines about tariffs and quietly using every tool it has to protect American innovation, push trading partners to honor intellectual property rights, and make foreign nations pay fairer shares for access to U.S. medicines and technology. This piece explains why those IP fights matter, how they play out in pharmaceuticals and tech, and what actions are on the table to defend American companies and workers. The focus is on practical steps the administration has taken and the sensible next moves it can push through Congress and trade channels. The tone is straightforward: firm pressure, smart leverage, and a clear defense of U.S. innovation.
The president told the world at Davos that foreign governments have been “screwing” American workers, companies and investors for decades, and that blunt description captures why the issue resonates. Most folks only notice tariffs, but the fight over intellectual property is just as crucial and often more lasting. If IP protections fail abroad, U.S. firms lose sales, jobs, and the incentive to keep investing in breakthrough research.
IP is the engine of modern growth: industries that rely on intellectual property drive huge chunks of GDP and support millions of jobs. Strong protections let entrepreneurs and big companies alike take the enormous risks needed to create new tech and life-saving drugs. When other countries undercut those safeguards, they effectively free-ride on American ingenuity and shift costs back onto U.S. taxpayers and patients.
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The pharmaceutical sector is a prime example of how damaging foreign practices can be. Many governments use blunt tools like price controls, mandatory rebates and regulatory delays to drive down prices for American-made medicines. That kind of treatment discourages long-term investment in drug development and tilts the global burden of innovation toward U.S. consumers and firms.
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Take the European Union: its “General Pharmaceutical Legislation” trims market exclusivity for new drugs and piles on regulatory hurdles that make it harder to protect innovation. Brussels is also flirting with rules that would let governments demand access to patented technologies, a move that would weaken incentives across the board. If left unchallenged, those shifts will make it harder for American biotech to fund the next generation of cures.
Mexico has its own problems under USMCA, letting generic and biosimilar makers launch early without reliable patent-verification processes in place. That means U.S. biotech often gets blindsided, losing the chance to defend patents before competitors hit the market. Keeping Mexico squarely on the Priority Watch List and raising the heat during the USMCA review is a reasonable, targeted response.
The administration has pursued practical fixes rather than just rhetoric. A recent trade agreement with the United Kingdom swapped tariff relief for commitments to limit revenue clawbacks from biotech companies and to increase drug spending as a share of GDP. These kinds of give-and-take deals use leverage to secure concrete protections for American firms and to prevent foreign governments from skimming the rewards of U.S. innovation.
The government has also moved to block imports that violate U.S. IP rights and to signal tougher enforcement in court. The Department of Justice and the Patent and Trademark Office filed statements of interest in cases like Samsung v. Radian Memory Systems and Collision Communications v. Samsung, urging courts to consider “injunctions” to stop sales of stolen technology. Those filings explicitly warn against letting “potential infringers” raid the market with impunity.
There are sensible next steps Congress and the White House can press. Passing the bipartisan RESTORE Patent Rights Act would make injunctions easier to obtain and strengthen U.S. firms’ remedies against theft. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should also be ready to add the EU to a Special 301 watchlist and to press Mexico hard during its USMCA review.
The strategy is simple and effective: use tariffs where necessary, but pair them with quiet, sustained diplomatic, legal and trade pressure to protect IP abroad. That approach protects American jobs, preserves incentives to innovate, and forces trading partners to play by fair rules rather than freeloading on U.S. breakthroughs.
