Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) (original) (raw)
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)Robin Gross2021-07-11T17:22:19+00:00
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
What is the Proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)?
In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA is spearheaded by the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland — those countries with the largest intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA’s negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA’s negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry.
After the multi-lateral treaty’s scope and priorities are negotiated by the few countries invited to participate in the early discussions, ACTA’s text will be “locked” and other countries who are later “invited” to sign-on to the pact will not be able to re-negotiate its terms. It is claimed that signing-on to the trade agreement will be "voluntary", but few countries will have the muscle to refuse an “invitation” to join, once the rules have been set by the select few conducting the negotiations.
The US is negotiating ACTA through the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), an office within the Bush Administration that has concluded more than 10 “free trade” agreements in recent years, all of which require both the US and the other country to increase intellectual property rights enforcement measures beyond the international legal norms in the WTO-TRIPS Agreement.
On 21 April 2010, the USTR released a proposed consolidated text of the ACTA treaty, although much remains in brackets (without agreement from the negotiating parties). Sean Flynn has published a legal analysis of the released ACTA draft on the PIJIP ACTA IP Enforcement Database, which hosts a wealth of information on ACTA.
As of January 2009, no draft text had been published to provide the public with substance of the proposed international treaty, although a “Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” was reportedly provided to select lobbyists in the intellectual property industry, but not to public interest organizations concerned with the subject matter of the proposed treaty. ( Wikileaks posted the leaked ACTA discussion paper on 22 May 2008).
- Call for Support of International Civil Society Declaration on Public Interest Aspects of ACTA – Now open for signature to global public!
- Proposed Draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) released by USTR on 21 April 2010
- PIJIP Sean Flynn Legal Analysis of the Draft ACTA
- ACTA IP Enforcement Database from American University Washington College of Law / PIJIP
- IP Justice White Paper on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) (25 March 2008) (also .pdf)
- IP Justice Comments to USTR "ACTA’s Misguided Effort to Increase Govt. Spying and Ratchet-Up IPR Enforcement at Public Expense (21 March 2008)
- Join the mailing list for discussion of ACTA
- Specific provisions to expect to see in ACTA text
- USTR "Fact Sheet" on ACTA
- Australian Government ACTA website
- FAQ of the European Commission on ACTA
- Canadian Government on ACTA
- ACTA Action Now!
- Google’s Comments to USTR on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
- Coalition of Technology Companies and Digital Rights Groups Comment on ACTA to USTR
- Secret Counterfeiting Treaty Public Must be Made Public, 100 Global Organizations Say