Author: James Love

This week WIPO and the Library of Congress are holding a week long symposium on International Copyright, with title:

Emerging Issues in Copyright and Related Rights for Developing
Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition
organized by
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
in cooperation with
the United States Copyright Office, Library of Congress
Washington D.C., March 19 to 23, 2012

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This is a blog about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). More information is available here: /acta

ACTA is an attempt to bypass multilateral institutions

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USTR asked to use trade pressure to curtail unauthorized copying of educational materials

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Every year, USTR publishes the names of countries that do not adequately protect intellectual property rights. (See /ustr/special301) . Among the classifications are the Priority Watch List (PWL) and the somewhat lower status Watch List (WL).

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President Obama claims to have kept “lobbyists” off the advisory boards for USTR. The Obama Administration relies upon the narrow legal definition of those persons who register to lobby the US Congress, which excludes expenditures to direct, supervise or support the lobbyists, and expenditures of many staff and consultants who are not fully engaged in lobbying the Congress. Expenditures to influence the executive branch (including USTR) has very little if any regulation, and are not counted as lobbying. Continue Reading →

In a meeting with USTR on February 15, 2012, KEI, MSF, Oxfam and Public Citizen pressed USTR to release the negotiating text for the intellectual property rights chapter in the TPPA trade agreement negotiation. USTR said the negotiation had “unprecedented” transparency, but maintained the text needed to be secret from the general public. USTR also claimed than no one on its many advisory boards, who are cleared to see the negotiating text, were lobbyists.

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KEI and Essential Inventions have both filed requests to testify at the public hearing on the 2012 Special 301 Report. The comments are attached here:

KEI 2012 Comments on Special 301, in PDF or ODT

Essential Inventions 2012 Comments on Special 301, in PDF

The KEI submission follows:

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Health GAP, KEI, Oxfam, Public Citizen, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and Professor Susan Sell have written Cameron Forbes Kerry, the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce, asking Kerry to “review work on the Africa Intellectual Property Forum, currently scheduled for April 3-5, 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa, to see if the sponsorship of the event violates Executive Order 13155, on Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technologies.” Executive Order 13155 was issued by President Clinton on May 10, 2000 after an extensive review of U.S. Continue Reading →