Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement

The Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement (IPE) promotes America’s innovation agenda by promoting effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property. The IPE team leads innovation and intellectual property negotiations in the G8 and the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) , co-chairs the State Department’s Training Coordination Group that oversees the distribution of intellectual property law enforcement training funds, promotes the benefits of intellectual property rights (IPR) for development through a global IPR public diplomacy, and works through the Administration’s Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) to combat trade in counterfeit and pirated goods worldwide.

Office Director: Joan Wadelton

Contact Info: Email WadeltonJS@state.gov
Phone (202) 647-3985
Fax (202) 647-1537

Ms. Wadelton, a career Foreign Service officer, is the Director of the Office of International Intellectual Property Enforcement. She has served overseas in Africa, Latin American and Russia. Ms. Wadelton worked in Iraq as an economic advisor at the Coalition Provisional Authority for a year and later returned to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on an assessment mission examining management and reconstruction issues. She was subsequently the advisor for Iraq issues to the Under Secretary for Economic and Agriculture Affairs. Ms. Wadelton has had assignments in the State Department's Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs, and was the lead negotiator for bilateral investment treaties at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She also has served as advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while on loan from the State Department, and was the creator of the State Department's Liaison Office on Capitol Hill.