Post Tagged with: "Counterfeit"

Peeking Behind Canada’s Copyright Complaint Against China at the WTO

Late last month, the World Trade Organization released a much-anticipated decision involving a U.S.-led complaint against China over its intellectual property laws. Canada was among a number of countries that participated in the case, which alleged that China’s domestic laws, border measures, and criminal penalties for intellectual property violations do not comply with its international treaty obligations.

On April 25, 2007, David Emerson, then the Minister of International Trade, issued a press release announcing Canada's participation, stating that it was "based on concerns expressed by Canadian stakeholders on a range of issues related to China's intellectual property rights regime." Yet, as reported in my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) according to dozens of internal Canadian government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, Canadian officials, unable to amass credible evidence of harm to Canadian interests, harboured significant doubts about the wisdom of joining the case and ultimately did so only under the weight of great pressure from the United States.

February 9, 2009 — 10 comments — Columns

Peeking Behind the Wall of Canada’s Copyright Complaint Against China

Appeared in the Toronto Star on February 9, 2009 as Scaling Wall Over Canada's Trade Complaint Against China Late last month, the World Trade Organization released a much-anticipated decision involving a U.S.-led complaint against China over its intellectual property laws. Canada was among a number of countries that participated in […]

February 9, 2009 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive

Putting Together the ACTA Puzzle: Privacy, P2P Major Targets

Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement resume next month in Morocco, but as the discussions drag on, details on the proposed treaty are beginning to emerge. Obtaining information through official channels such as Freedom of Information requests has been very difficult; however, there is little doubt that lobby groups have been privy to inside information and so reliable sources have begun to sketch a fairly detailed outline of the proposed treaty.

There is some good news from the details that have started to emerge. First, the treaty is far from complete as there are six main chapters and some key elements have yet to be discussed. Moreover, it is clear that there is significant disagreement on many aspects of the treaty with the U.S. and Japan jointly proposing language and many countries responding with potential changes or even recommendations that the language be dropped altogether.

If that is the good news, the bad news is that most other fears about the scope of ACTA are real. The proposed treaty appears to have six main chapters: (1) Initial Provisions and Definitions; (2) Enforcement of IPR; (3) International Cooperation; (4) Enforcement Practices; (5) Institutional Arrangements; and (6) Final Provisions. Most of the discussion to date has centred on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights chapter. As for the other chapters, the U.S. has supplied some proposed definitions and Canada supplied a "non-paper" on the institutional arrangements once a treaty is concluded that calls for the creation of an "ACTA Oversight Council" that would meet each year to discuss implementations, best practices, and assist other governments who are considering joining ACTA.

The work on Enforcement of IPR is broken down into four sections – civil enforcement, border measures, criminal enforcement, and Rights Management Technology/the Internet.

February 3, 2009 — 6 comments — News

The Chamber of Commerce’s Counterfeit Claims

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce's IP lobbying arm, the Canadian IP Council (members include CRIA and major pharmaceutical companies), will release a new set of recommendations for Canadian IP reform tomorrow. Based on their past comments, it is reasonable to expect that the report to claim that Canadian IP law is outdated and that combating counterfeiting and piracy will require WIPO ratification, new criminal provisions, and stronger border measures. As evidence, the report will claim that a conservative estimate of the costs of Canadian counterfeiting is $22 billion per year. As discussed last week, notwithstanding opposition from local chapters like Hamilton, the Chamber has emerged as a leading lobby group with regular meetings, the promotion of ACTA, and repeated claims about the scope of Canadian counterfeiting.

While no one should be supportive of counterfeiting, the reality is that there have been numerous arrests in recent weeks, suggesting that Canadian law is not exactly powerless to combat counterfeiting. Moreover, data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service indicates that Canada is not a major source of counterfeit goods as we did not rank among the top ten sources of seizures in 2008. Most troubling, however, is the Chamber's consistent reliance on unsubstantiated data that has no credibility.

February 2, 2009 — 3 comments — News

Canada’s Private ACTA Talking Points

While the Canadian government has dutifully followed the U.S. line on ACTA with bland releases following each of the four 2008 negotiation sessions, newly obtained documents under the Access to Information Act reveal that the Canadian delegation may be speaking out on some of the public concerns that have been raised around transparency and the exclusion of many countries from the negotiation process [download here]. The documents include several noteworthy revelations:

First, the documents confirm that the leaked ACTA document from last year was indeed the ACTA Discussion Paper distributed among governments. At the time, there was some question as to whether this was an industry wish-list or a government document. The Canadian documents confirm that this was a government document, a suggested intervention notes that "we would like to raise the issue of communications. As you all know by now, the ACTA Discussion Paper has been leaked . . . "

Second, the documents reveal that Canada submitted two "non-papers" to the other countries in advance of the first round of negotiations last year. The two papers focused on (1) institutional and procedural issues to be addressed during the negotiations and (2) institutional issues following the negotiation of ACTA.

Third, the documents include suggested interventions for the Geneva meeting last June.

January 29, 2009 — 4 comments — News