Notes on the October 7, 2010 USTR NGO briefing on ACTA
By Judit Rius Sanjuan & Anne Mira Guha
Today, USTR held a nearly 2-hour public briefing on the new version of the ACTA text. USTR representatives present included Stan McCoy, Kira Alvarez, and Rachel Bae. Stan and Kira did most of the talking at the meeting.
The October 2, 2010 version of the ACTA text is now available. A copy is here.
See also: Areas where the Oct 2, 2010 ACTA text is inconsistent with U.S. law
(revised 10:17 am, October 7, 2010)
Marcy Kaptur is a Democratic member of Congress from Ohio. In 2009 she introduced HR 3299, the Seed Availability and Competition Act of 2009. Continue Reading
Civil law injunctions and damages for infringement are national security hot spots 4% (10 votes) ACTA negotiators don’t want people asking informed questions about the substance of the agreement 69% (191 votes) No one in the Administration cares enough about… Continue Reading
Draft
This is work in progress, and is part of a larger project on timelines. This particular timeline is unfinished, and may contain errors.
KEI has obtained a copy of the August 25, 2010 version of the ACTA consolidated negotiating text. This is Part 1 of our initial notes on the document.
(Part 2 is available here.)
(revised September 9, 2010)
The preamble in the August, 25, 2010 text includes 10 paragraphs, of which only 3 do not have brackets.
On Tuesday, August 17, 2010, USTR organized a lunch between ACTA negotiators and civil society NGOs. There was not much notice. We received our invite to the lunch last Thursday. Representatives from KEI, Public Citizen, Oxfam, Public Knowledge and the American University program on intellectual property attended the event.
Article 2.3 of the July 1, 2010 version of the ACTA text provides for “Other Remedies” for infringement. The Japan, Switzerland and EU versions of the text appear to be overreaching, including for example by directly conflicting with explicit TRIPS provisions and provisions in the laws of ACTA negotiating countries, including several European Countries.
The July 1, 2010 ACTA text includes several provisions that would set global norms for damages, including most importantly, on pages 6 and 7, Article 2.2 on Damages. Also relevant are the provisions in Article 2.X on General Obligations with Respect to Enforcement, on page 5.
This week, the European Commission conducted two briefings for members of the European Parliament.
On Monday, July 12, members of the European Parliament’s INTA Committee (Committee on International Trade) were briefed by EU ACTA negotiators Luc Devigne and Pedro Valesco in a private, closed meeting.
Today, July 13, Karel De Gucht, EU Commissioner for Trade held a public briefing in the LIBE Committee (Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs). The video is now available here