Last Thursday, the White House announced the long-awaited nomination for the position of Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC). The candidate is Danny Marti, a Washington-based IP lawyer, and pending confirmation by the Senate, Marti will step into the post which has been vacant for just over a year.

The IPEC position is sometimes colloquially called a “piracy czar,” and indeed the problem of unauthorized media downloads and streams will likely be on his list of priorities, and potentially of the greatest relevance to the music community. However his responsibilities will also extend to coordinating U.S. law-enforcement strategy around patents and trademarks, as well as copyright—both domestically and in partnership with international law enforcement.