IP Watch reports that three Kenyan AIDS patients have launched a constitutional challenge against that country's anti-counterfeiting legislation on the grounds that it may deny them access to generic medicines.
Post Tagged with: "Counterfeit"
ACTA Update: New Meetings, New Partners, New Issues
The Canadian government held an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement consultation meeting today focused on pharmaceutical and access to medicines issues. The meeting was smaller than the earlier consultation in April, but featured some important new information about the ACTA process including a fuller description of planned negotiating meetings, details on the upcoming Morocco meeting, and confirmation on an inquiry from Brazil about joining the negotiations.
1. Negotiation schedule
The ACTA partners met on June 11th to discuss ACTA related issues and committed at the meeting to continue with the negotiations. The next meeting is set for Morocco in July with later meetings currently planned for October (Korea) and December (Mexico). There are additional tentative plans for meetings in February and April 2010.
2. The Morocco meeting
Officials advised that the Morocco meeting will be a two-day meeting that focuses on ACTA chapters involving international co-operation, enforcement, and institutional issues. The meeting will also address some "housekeeping" issues including ongoing transparency concerns. The Internet-related provisions will not be a focus and the Internet-related issues has not progressed beyond the U.S. non-paper that surveyed other ACTA participants on the state of their digital copyright laws (in other words, there is still no draft text).
Canada Confirms ACTA Participation
The U.S. announcement of its plans to continue with the ACTA negotiations was actually part of a joint statement from all ACTA partners. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs has posted a similar statement, noting its plans to participate in the Morocco meeting in July 2009.
Obama Administration Confirms ACTA Support
The Obama Administration has confirmed its support for continuing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations. The next round of talks are set for July in Morocco. The U.S. hopes to conclude the deal by 2010.
Foreign Affairs Posts ACTA Consultation Responses
The Department of Foreign Affairs has posted nearly 20 responses it received to the 2008 consultation on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. I posted the internal report on all the responses, obtained under Access to Information, earlier this year.
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