Notes from meeting with USTR on the TPP IPR chapter

Today USTR provided some additional insight into negotiations of a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. The USTR web page on the TPP negotiations is http://www.ustr.gov/tpp. At present, the TPP negotiators include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Japan and Canada have expressed interest in joining the negotiations, and USTR clearly would like to design an agreement that will be open to other countries. Our discussions focused on the intellectual property chapter in the agreement. Continue Reading

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ACTA: USTR’s talking points to WTO Council for TRIPS

The following statement is the oral intervention made by USTR at the WTO Council for TRIPS (October 2010) regarding ACTA.

Talking Points of the United States for TRIPS Council Meeting of October 26, 2010
Agenda Item P
ACTA

We would like to thank other delegations for their interest in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
Delegations will recall that the United States and other delegations have been interested in discussing the issue of IP enforcement at this Council for many years and so we’re pleased to have another discussion today.

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USTR positions in China WTO TRIPS dispute at odds with talking points on ACTA flexibility

Use of Article 1.1 of the TRIPS in the US/China WTO dispute over the enforcement of intellectual property rights

USTR claims that Article 1.2.1 of ACTA provides the flexibility to overlook inconsistencies between US law and ACTA. Below is the text from both Article 1.2.1 of ACTA, and Article 1.1 of TRIPS:

ACTA ARTICLE 1.2: NATURE AND SCOPE OF OBLIGATIONS
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USTR’s implausible claim that ACTA Article 1.2 is an all purpose loophole, and the ramifications if true

The October 2010 version of the ACTA text is inconsistent with several areas of U.S. law, and proposals for new laws in the areas of the reform of patent damages and access to orphaned copyrighted works. In particular, the obligations in the ACTA text do not incorporate many of the areas of limitations and exceptions to remedies found in U.S. law, and in the statutes of some other countries.

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