There was progress during the ninth round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) this week in Lucerne, negotiators said over the last day, and in their final press communiqué they made promises that “ACTA will not interfere with a signatory’s ability to respect fundamental rights and liberties,” it would be consistent with World Trade Organization agreements and certainly “not hinder the cross-border transit of legitimate generic medicine.”

But negotiators could not agree to allow the interested public or experts to check how these promises would be phrased, as no new draft ACTA text was released at the meeting’s conclusion yesterday.

Europe, the United States and Japan need to have strong intellectual property laws to protect the creative economy which is under attack, according to the heads of leading business groups.

The following contribution was authored by business leaders Mark Esper, Philippe de Buck and Kenji Koumoto.

"Intellectual property (IP), which results from hard work, ideas and investment, is embodied in the products that we enjoy every day - from the latest cell phone and newest song or movie to a novel treatment for a chronic disease or the latest fashion. 

Without question, the global economy and society owe much to the ideas that lead to the IP we have all come to rely on in our daily lives and for our livelihoods.

Tri-lateral Statement Sees Agreement as a Means to Create Jobs and Protect Consumers

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) today joined BUSINESSEUROPE and the International Intellectual Property Protection Forum of Japan in calling for the conclusion of a strong Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement (ACTA). In a Tri-lateral Statement issued today, European, Japanese and American business voices called for a strong agreement that “results in more effective enforcement of IP rights,” while strengthening the global economy, creating jobs and protecting consumers from dangerous products. The Statement coincides with this week’s ACTA negotiations in Lucerne, Switzerland.

“Intellectual property theft—in the form of counterfeiting and piracy—is a global problem,” said Dr. Mark T. Esper, executive vice president of the Chamber’s Global IP Center.

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U.S. Chamber Joins European and Japanese Business Associations in Calling for a Strong ACTA

After two days of lively discussion, members of a World Trade Organization committee this week agreed to devote a day in October to an in-depth discussion on a little-used waiver to WTO intellectual property rules aimed at boosting access to medicines for poor countries. In addition, some member countries presented concerns about the possible effect of a global enforcement push by developed countries and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under negotiation outside WTO, while ACTA proponent countries sought to allay fears.

The WTO Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) met on 8-9 June.

Rich and developing countries clashed on Wednesday over controversial proposals to tighten up the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is being negotiated by a dozen governments and authorities, mainly in rich states but including some emerging economies, to police trademark protection more effectively and ban Internet piracy.

But many developing countries fear the ACTA proposals will go beyond the current rules at the World Trade Organization, known as TRIPS, and could be used to block legitimate trade.

China and India put the ACTA proposals on Thursday's regular meeting of the WTO's TRIPS council to voice their concerns, backed by the bulk of the WTO's 153 members.

"They might be a loophole for competitors to use to disrupt trade," Zhao Hong, a senior Chinese trade diplomat, told Reuters after the meeting.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

ACTA would allow customs officers of signatory states to m

The veil of official secrecy that has shrouded talks on an “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” for the past two years was finally lifted last week, with the release of a comprehensive draft negotiating text.

Digital rights activists, academics, and sections of the computer industry had long decried the lack of transparency surrounding the negotiations. Participating governments - from a few dozen mostly industrialised countries - had been refusing to make public draft texts or individual proposals, as has become common at the WTO.

Chinks had already begun to appear in the wall erected around the ACTA process. Most significantly, a draft annotated with countries’ different negotiating positions was leaked in March. That followed a number of smaller leaks.

After coming under pressure by public interest groups and some lawmakers, the negotiating parties involved in a proposed trade agreement aimed at curbing global counterfeiting and the piracy of intellectual property released a public text of the proposal Wednesday.

The release of the draft Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement does address calls by some U.S. and European lawmakers for greater transparency in the negotiating process but is unlikely to quiet the controversy surrounding the measure.

The European Commission, which was urged to push for release of the ACTA draft by an overwhelming European Parliament vote, said the public release of the document will hopefully dispel rumors that the proposal would "lead to a limitation of civil liberties or to 'harassment' of consumers." The Office of the U.S.

Countries negotiating a deal to curb trade in fake and pirated goods are close to reaching an agreement in talks that have raised concerns among digital rights advocates, U.S. trade officials said on Friday.

"The agreement can be concluded soon if other participants make it a priority to achieve such progress now," Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for the U.S.

In the aftermath of the recent protracted fights over healthcare, the United States has seen a wave of intellectual property-related policy activity.

The recently published 2010 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers [pdf] – an annual report that surveys alleged trade barriers to US exports – has several complaints about other nations’ treatment of US intellectual property rights.

The report, for example, names insufficient penalties for copyright violation in Australia; piracy of software, music and movies as well as “erosion of intellectual property protection for pharmaceutical products” in Bolivia; concerns over adequate protection of pharmaceuticals and against use of test data for pharmaceuticals in Brazil; failure to implement copyright reform in Canada, including the WIPO “internet treaties” that Canada signed in 1997; a slew of IP issues in Chin

Two key members of Congress are voicing support for an international agreement aimed at curbing anti-counterfeiting despite lingering concerns from public interest groups and other lawmakers in the United States and Europe about the secrecy surrounding the negotiations.

In a letter last week to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the co-chairmen of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, commended Kirk's agency for its "continued commitment in negotiating an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement with our trading partners."

Hatch and Schiff, members of the Judiciary Committee in their respective chambers, added that "protecting intellectual property rights is vital to our country's continued success as a world leader in innovation. ...