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Rob McKenna, Former Wash. AG, Joins NAJI As President

The National Alliance for Jobs and Innovation (NAJI) is pleased to announce that former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna has joined NAJI's Board of Directors and will serve as NAJI President. NAJI is a non-partisan organization of over 200 members whose mission is to help stop unfair competition resulting from stolen intellectual property (IP) — whether through piracy, counterfeiting, or trade secret theft.

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McKenna to help lead alliance aimed at stopping IP and IT theft and unfair competition

WASHINGTON — The National Alliance for Jobs and Innovation (NAJI) is pleased to announce that former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna has joined NAJI's Board of Directors and will serve as NAJI President. NAJI is a non-partisan organization of over 200 members whose mission is to help stop unfair competition resulting from stolen intellectual property (IP) — whether through piracy, counterfeiting, or trade secret theft.

McKenna served two terms as the Attorney General of Washington from January 2005 to January 2013. Currently a partner in Orrick's Seattle office and co-head of the firm's Public Policy Group, McKenna brings a wealth of experience in the areas of unfair competition, intellectual property law and privacy regulation. As Washington Attorney General, McKenna negotiated three of the largest consumer financial protection settlements in national history, became the first state Attorney General to build a computer forensics lab to collect evidence of Internet fraud, and passed one of the nation’s first anti-spyware laws. McKenna also served as President of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), where he co-launched the NAAG Intellectual Property Task Force to advance the national fight against counterfeiting and piracy.

Formerly Advisory Board members, NAJI has also appointed Drew Greenblatt, President of Marlin Steel Wire in Maryland, as Chairman and Brian Raymond, Director of Technology Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), as Treasurer. A leader in the wire product industry, Greenblatt has been outspoken about the pitfalls of IP theft for the manufacturing sector and has testified to the U.S. Senate and House on topics including small business and trade policy. Raymond represents NAM’s members on technology policy issues ranging from patent reform, privacy issues and cyber/data security to net neutrality, R&D funding and intellectual property protection.

"I am enormously excited to help keep a spotlight on the issue of IP theft and its serious impacts on American jobs and economic growth. Our country's ability to create and maintain good-paying jobs in manufacturing and information technology is among the most crucial challenges we face. When foreign competitors steal our IT and IP and use it to compete unfairly against American companies, we not only lose jobs and reduce growth, we also discourage our innovators' creative and entrepreneurial spirit. We simply cannot afford to allow unfair competition to steal our future,” said Rob McKenna. As Washington Attorney General, McKenna successfully challenged a large overseas manufacturer to pay over $3 million in software licensing fees it owed and end its practice of using unlicensed software to gain a competitive advantage.

The Business Software Alliance estimates that over $60 billion worth of software is stolen globally each year, providing the companies that steal this software and other information technology with an unfair competitive cost advantage over their competitors. On the other hand, in 2010 alone U.S. manufacturers spent nearly $95 billion on IT, which is a critical component of research, development and production. If global piracy were reduced by 10 percent in four years, it would result in more than $37 billion in added U.S. GDP, $6.2 billion in U.S. tax revenue and 25,000 new U.S. jobs.


About NAJI

The National Alliance for Jobs and Innovation (NAJI) is a nonpartisan organization of U.S. businesses and industry experts working together to stop unfair competition from the use of stolen intellectual property (IP), whether it be through piracy, counterfeiting, or trade secret theft. For more information, please visit www.NAJI.org.

An in-depth look into NAJI's mission and current objectives can be found in M.net's profile of Drew Greenblatt and his company, Marlin Steel.

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