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Top Story
The following story is from the June 18 issue of International
Trade Reporter
Current Reports:
Intellectual Property
USTR Announces It Will Move Forward
On Intellectual Property Rights Agreement
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced June 12 that it intended to move forward with negotiations on an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) aimed at assisting in government efforts to combat the proliferation of counterfeit and pirated goods.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a written news release that since ACTA had been determined to be an important part of the U.S. trade agenda, the United States was ready to continue negotiations. The Obama administration has been conducting an overall review of the current and pending trade agreements, including ACTA, USTR said.
“The ACTA negotiations provide an opportunity to toughen international standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights, making it harder for counterfeit and pirated products to enter our country and making the world safer for the innovation and creativity that are so critical to the U.S. economy,” Kirk said.
ACTA negotiators will meet in July in Morocco with the goal of reaching an agreement in 2010, the release said. Negotiations on ACTA as a new state-of-the art agreement intellectual property agreement began in June 2008 under the Bush administration.
In addition to the United States, ACTA participants include Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland.
The EU said in a June 12 release that the participants'
goals were to increase international cooperation to combat infringement by strengthening relevant IPR enforcement measures.
The U.S. approach to ACTA, USTR said, was to view IPR provisions in recent U.S. free trade agreements as a model.
Transparency Pledged
Kirk said that USTR would ensure that the public is kept well informed and has opportunities to give input. USTR had been criticized for secrecy about ACTA negotiations by public interest groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation (26 ITR 636, 5/14/09).
The USTR release said that members of the public with questions about the status of negotiations should contact Kira Alvarez, chief negotiator and deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for intellectual property enforcement, at (202) 395-4510.
Other plans to keep the public informed include an ACTA web page on the USTR web site, town hall meetings, and an “open door”
policy. USTR also in April released a summary of issues under negotiation in the digital environment (26 ITR 472, 4/9/09).
Support From Congress, Business
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), in separate releases expressed support for the USTR decision to continue with ACTA negotiations and ensure increased transparency on the negotiations.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a June 12 release that, once completed, ACTA would enable the United States and its trading partners to better combat and piracy. “We must work with likeminded trading partners to ensure that all nations understand that IP theft is a serious problem that doesn't just affect businesses' bottom lines in the short term, but also discourages investment and innovation in the long term,” said Mark Esper, executive vice president of the chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center.
By Amy Tsui
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