Published 8/5/2006
This Lee Terry legislation is also introduced in the United States Senate.
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BY JOSEPH MORTON
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WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
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WASHINGTON - The effort to protect the Gallup Organization's good name moved to the U.S. Senate this week.
Gallup has complained that foreign companies, some of which receive money from the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been illegally using its name.
Those companies negatively affect Gallup's reputation, it says, by stamping the Gallup moniker on substandard work.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., introduced a bill that requires groups receiving foreign aid to certify that they don't counterfeit trademarks and respect U.S. intellectual property rights law.
Hagel said it was "outrageous" that U.S. foreign assistance would be provided to groups that engage in counterfeit practices.
U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., has introduced similar legislation in the House.
Gallup, the public opinion polling firm, has a large teaching campus in Omaha.
Both Terry and Hagel have tried pressing Gallup's case with the Bush administration and with USAID.
In a letter to Hagel, USAID administrator Randall Tobias said that a review by staff turned up no contracts with entities that had violated trademark law.
"USAID will do everything within its power to ensure that intellectual property rights are protected," Tobias said.
In a written reply, Hagel said the problem is greater than the agency has represented and that it has taken inadequate steps to protect Gallup's rights.
Terry said USAID's attitude "put Chuck and me in a position where we had to move forward on legislation."
View this story on omaha.com