On August 10, 2010, KEI sent a letter to the President of Mexico expressing our concerns in the position of the Mexican government in the ACTA negotiations. KEI noted that the proposed ACTA text, if adopted, would require the adoption of new legal provisions that would compromise the public interest of Mexico. KEI asked the Mexican government to change some positions it had taken earlier in the negotiation, and to support the inclusion in the ACTA text of of new flexibilities and protections of the fundamental rights of its citizens.

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.

Since the early ‘70s, European countries have adopted a comprehensive legal framework on personal data protection that aims to balance the free flow of information for market purposes with an adequate level of protection for the right of privacy.

The following is a letter written by Alberto Cerda Silva, a Research Associate of Knowledge Ecology International, to Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, regarding the position of the Mexican government in the ACTA negotiations.

USTR will host the next round of ACTA negotiations that will take place all of next week, August 16-20, in Washington DC. According to USTR yesterday, the negotiators "expect to cover all issues" and the agenda would be made available in a day or so.

Here is a proposed agenda that we have obtained from another source.

ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT (ACTA)
PROPOSED AGENDA
10th Round of Negotiations
August 16th-20th, 2010, Washington, DC

According to an informed source, USTR intimated that next week's ACTA meeting in Washington DC will be attended by all the negotiating parties and that discussions would include all issues under consideration in ACTA. We are still awaiting a response from USTR regarding the attendees, scope and purpose of the meeting but this new information seems to be indicative of nothing short of the next ACTA round.

Earlier, US government officials had informed that the an intersessional meeting would be held the week of 16 August in Washington DC.

WHO has released the 'List of Members of, and Advisor to, the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee concerning Influenza Pandemic (H1N1) 2009' at the following site: http://www.who.int/ihr/emerg_comm_members_2009/en/. Of the 15 members and one advisor, 6 had declaration of interests. On this matter, WHO had the following statement:

WIPO's First Intersessional Working Group (IWG 1) concluded its five days of deliberations on Friday, 23 July 2010 substantially closer to its goal of establishing a sui generis legal regime for the protection of traditional cultural expressions/expressions of folklore. On Friday, the WIPO secretariat distributed a summary report of the first IWG (attached below).

As mentioned in two previous KEI blogs, the WIPO's First Intersessional Working Group received its mandate from the 16th WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) to 'provide legal and technical advice and analysis, including, where appropriate, options and scenarios for consideration of the IGC' including the outcomes, recommendations and texts relating to the discussion specifically on a working document containing draft provisions for a possible instrument for the protection of traditional cultural expressions/e

As mentioned in a previous piece entitled WIPO expert committee deliberates on road map to protect traditional cultural expressions, WIPO has convened an intersessional working group (IWG) comprised of experts from countries and observer organizations to examine draft provisions of a document prepared by the WIPO secretariat on 'The Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore: Revised Objectives and Principles'. The IWG runs from July 19-23, 2010.