Biden Nominates Paramount’s Deborah Robinson to Fill IPEC Vacancy

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President Joe Biden announced Monday that his nominee for the next Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) will be Deborah Robinson, head of intellectual property enforcement at Paramount Global. The position has been vacant since Vishal Amin, who was confirmed to the post under President Donald Trump, left in 2021.

According to the White House press release, Robinson previously worked for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for five years, and spent seven years as an Assistant District Attorney for the city of Philadelphia. She has been a frequent legal pundit on network broadcasts, including ESPN and CNN, and serves as Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee of the IP Section of the New York State Bar Association and as a Board Member of Aequitas, a non-profit focused on access and quality of justice in cases of human trafficking and gender-based violence. She received her B.A. from Howard University and her J.D. from University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The IPEC role was created in 2008 and heads the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC). The IPEC advises the President and coordinates with Cabinet departments and agencies on U.S. IP policy and strategy, and is part of the Executive Office of the President.

During a hearing of the House IP Subcommittee in March, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Mark Cohen, Distinguished Senior Fellow and Director of Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, agreed that the IPEC role had been vacant too long and filling it would go a long way toward helping to streamline the efforts of the numerous government agencies that interact with IP law and policy.

On Monday, Schiff reiterated his support for filling the role, commenting that he had previously sent a letter to Biden urging him to choose Robinson for the role.

Patrick Kilbride of the Global Innovation Policy Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce likewise welcomed the nomination and said “Robinson’s extensive experience prosecuting intellectual property theft in the public and private sectors makes her an outstanding choice for this vital role.”

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees also applauded the nomination, particularly due to Robinson’s deep knowledge of copyright issues facing the entertainment industry.