USTR has released its 2010 Special 301 list. Closely following the IIPI and the PhRMA asks, the Special 301 Priority Watch List countries are: Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, and Venezuela. Among high income countries, Finland, Norway and Spain made the Watch list this year. Sweden was off.
Today the first public draft of the ACTA text was released. A copy is available here. Earlier leaked versions of the text, which include country positions, are the January 18, 2010 consolidated text, a February 2010 EU memorandum of the selected sections, and seven documents from 2008.
Michael Geist has leaked the lasted draft of the intellectual property chapter of the Canada – EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement. These are some brief comments on the new document.
It applies to both parties.
When a very large trading partner negotiates with a smaller one, it is sometimes overlooked that the norms are designed to bind both parties. So the Canada/EU IPR agreement should be of interest to Canada and the 27 members of the European Union.
On January 6, 2010, Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to the USTR asking a number of questions about the U.S. negotiating objectives in ACTA. On February 28, 2010, USTR responded. The USTR response focused mostly on the official U.S. “asks,” rather than the state of the negotiating text, which also reflects also the views of other parties. For this reason, the USTR letter to Wyden only tells part of the story about what ACTA may do.
On 12 February 2010, the Council of the European Union distributed a table drawn up by the Commission Services, outlining the positions of various counties regarding civil enforcement and the special requirements relating to the Internet. A copy of this 44 page document was leaked on March 1, 2010, and is attached to this blog. A text version of the table is available from swpat.org.
Dear Chairman,
Congratulations to the Chair and the Vice Chairs for their elections.
KEI is an NGO that focuses on new thinking about innovation, and also the protection of consumers.
Our comments will focus on the proposal by Brazil to address the SCP work program on patent limitations and exceptions, as set out in SCP/14/7.
KEI supports all of the elements of work set out in paragraphs 25 to 27 of SCP/14/7, which we see as logical and useful steps to begin an empirically based discussion of patent limitations and exceptions, focused on practical concerns.
November 9, 2009
Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman
Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Max Baucus, Chairman
Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member
Senate Finance Committee
Representative John Conyers, Chairman
Representative Lamar Smith, Ranking Member
House Committee on the Judiciary
Representative Henry Waxman, Chairman,
Representative Joe Barton, Ranking Member
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Representative Charles Rangel, Chairman
Representative Dave Camp, Ranking Member
House Committee on Ways and Means
The following is the general statement that KEI delivered to the WIPO General Assembly on September 29, 2009.
General Statement of KEI
WIPO 2009 General Assembly
September 29, 2009
ACTA
Outside of WIPO, some countries are involved in secretive negotiations on a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). KEI asks WIPO to adopt a resolution calling for an end to the secrecy of this negotiation. Global norms for the enforcement of IP should be transparent and benefit from comments from the public before decisions are made on substantive provisions.
May 28th, 2007 by James Love
Written by Judit Rius Sanjuan
The most important international intellectual property agreement regulating remedies for intellectual property infringement is the 1994 WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement).