For Immediate Release:
November 9, 2009 A treaty being negotiated by the U.S. government dealing with intellectual property issues appears to have included parts of prior agreements “most favorable to groups of intellectual property holders” while leaving out those elements “most favorable to consumers,” Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Public Knowledge told Congressional leaders.
In a letter sent to Congress earlier today the two organizations, among the most active in the debate over the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), said that while they have in the past expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in the negotiations, this letter deals with the substance of the agreement as gleaned from press reports and “credible leaked documents.” A copy of the letter is here.
The groups said that it appears that the proposed agreement “implicates changes to international intellectual property norms far broader than its name suggests,” incorporating elements of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreements.
According to the letter: “Rather than taking as their starting point the entire TRIPS agreement, it would seem that the ACTA negotiators have identified certain parts of the TRIPS agreement most favorable to particular groups of intellectual property holders, including certain publishers, media conglomerates, and pharmaceutical companies. Left out of the ACTA text are the elements most favorable to consumers, including those intended to curb anticompetitive practices, and to protect innovation. The result is an agreement that is therefore unbalanced. ACTA would appear to be an expanded version of the TRIPS enforcement sections, but without the balance and safeguards that have given TRIPS such legitimacy.”
