President Barack Obama's administration has asked Congress to pass new enforcement measures for intellectual property law, in a move that could help more companies maintain control over their own innovations.

According to a whitepaper prepared by Intellectual Property enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinal, the legal penalties for corporate espionage and trading in counterfeit goods should be increased substantially, in the hopes of creating a stronger deterrent to this behavior.

Espinal's report also calls for the clarification of existing enforcement guidelines, asking Congress to clarify legally that re-streaming copyrighted content without authorization constitutes a violation of the rights of the original intellectual property holder.

Counterfeit drugs were also high on the list of priorities in the whitepaper, given the severe personal and economic harm that can be caused by bogus drugs making their way into the U.S. economy. New drug tracking systems that monitor pharmaceuticals should also be put in place, since this will allow counterfeit medications to be detected - and those trafficking in them punished - more easily, according to the report.