The United States, European Union (EU) member states and nine other countries recently met in Tokyo
and have produced a draft text of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that, according to
the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), “establishes a state-of-the-art
international framework that provides a model for effectively combating global proliferation of
commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy in the 21st century.” The draft pact is the result of a
series of negotiation sessions that have been conducted over the last three years.
The participating countries are parties to more than half of global trade activities and
include Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland in
addition to the United States and EU member countries. The U.S. negotiating team includes Deputy
USTR Miriam Sapiro, Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property & Innovation Stanford McCoy, and
Chief Negotiator for Intellectual Property Enforcement Kira Alvarez.
“This text reflects tremendous progress in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy — a
global crime wave that robs workers in the United States and around the world of good-paying jobs
and exposes consumers to dangerous products,” said USTR Ron Kirk. “The leadership shown by our ACTA
partners in reaching solutions on tough issues should send a strong message to pirates and
counterfeiters that they have no place in the channels of legitimate trade. We must now work
quickly with our partners to finalize the results achieved in Tokyo. This work represents a
significant victory for those who care about protecting and enforcing intellectual property
rights.”
The legal framework of the agreement includes the following provisions:
• general obligations by the parties to provide effective enforcement
methods;
• civil enforcement provisions to cover damage awards, injunctions against
further violations, recovery of legal and other costs, and destruction of contravening goods;
• customs and other border procedures to handle import and export
shipments;
• criminal enforcement provisions including remediation related to
commercial-scale copyright piracy, remediation related to the use or importation of packaging
labels for counterfeit goods, and commitments regarding confiscation and destruction of counterfeit
goods and confiscation of equipment and materials used to manufacture them as well as criminal
proceeds, among other provisions; and
• intellectual property rights enforcement in the digital environment
including provision of legal systems to handle circumvention of digital security features, among
other measures.
The agreement also includes provisions to strengthen international cooperation and promote
effective enforcement practices.
Upon resolution of a few issues that require further review by the individual countries, the
draft text will be finalized and released for final review.
October 12, 2010
