Intellectual Property in Practice: Filtering Testimony at the U nited S tates Trade Representative

Policy is made in small‐scale situations mediated by language. This article examines the ways in which the United States Trade Representative establishes a mandate by esoterically interpreting canonical texts and then using that mandate to filter testimony. Its goal is to maintain a watch list of countries that disrespect intellectual property. This involves managing intertextual relations in ways that efface some perspectives and highlight others, while creating three subjectivities: industry, public interest, and foreign governments. The end result is a policy document of markedly partial epistemology that combines direct citation of industry statements with obscure pronouncements that lack empirical basis. The article concludes by considering the ways in which policy‐makers modulate between specificity and non‐specificity in order to build their authority. In this case, as in others, this authority supports corporations over public‐interest groups.