Earlier this week, I spoke at a hearing on ACTA at the European Parliament. Media coverage of the talk is available here. The slides are posted below with full audio and video to come shortly.
Post Tagged with: "acta"
ACTA’s Injunction and Damages Provisions
KEI has published an exhaustive analysis of ACTA's current injunction and damages provisions, noting that ACTA's injunction provisions are significantly more restrictive than the provisions found in TRIPs.
The Trouble With ACTA
Public Knowledge's Sherwin Siy with a good piece on some of the problems with ACTA. As Sherwin rightly notes, "ACTA's status as a trade negotiation seems less based in the nature of its substance than in the convenience that this designation provides."
ACTA Podcast Explores Transparency and Substantive Concerns
Surprisingly Free has released a lengthy podcast in which I was interviewed about ACTA. The 40 minute podcast touches on a wide range of issues including transparency and substance of the agreement.
EU Demands Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws
Late last year, a draft of the European Union proposal for the intellectual property chapter of the Canada – EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement leaked online. The leak revealed that the EU was seeking some significant changes to Canadian IP laws. Negotiations have continued and I have now received an updated copy of the draft chapter, complete with proposals from both the EU and Canada. The breadth of the demands are stunning – the EU is demanding nothing less than a complete overhaul of Canadian IP laws including copyright, trademark, databases, patent, geographic indications, and even plant variety rights.
While there are some Canadian requests – for example, Canada plays Hollywood North by asking the EU to introduce an anti-camcording provision – virtually all the changes would require Canadian reforms. In fact, while the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement garners the bulk of the attention, CETA would actually involve far more domestic change. In some sections, the EU simply takes its own directives and incorporates them into the treaty. For example, provisions on the liability of ISPs is taken directly from EU law, including the use of terms such as "information society service" – something that is defined under EU law but is meaningless in Canada.
Notably, the draft includes many new rights for broadcasters. These rights form part of a proposed Broadcast Treaty at WIPO that has failed to achieve consensus. The EU is seeking to build support for the treaty by requiring Canada to implement many new provisions that would give broadcasters a host of new rights and force public places to pay additional fees for carry broadcasts.
Given the magnitude of the proposed changes, the price of a trade agreement is clear. The EU is effectively demanding that Canada surrender its sovereignty over intellectual property law and policy. Some of the proposed changes in the Intellectual Property chapter (Chapter 20) of CETA include: