Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

There has been a lot of noise regarding the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The negotiation process was obscure and it was performed on a closed-door basis. Leaks of drafting documents revealed a severe law framework that would level up the playing field for intellectual property rights enforcement, for instance.

Moreover, NGO´s and companies such as Google manifested their disagreement against the ACTA text. Likewise, scholars throughout the world also condemned ACTA, both in its negotiating process and in its substance.

All these circumstances, created a negative atmosphere on the public against the adoption of such Agreement.

ACTA was adopted on December 2010, however according to MATĚJ MYŠKA the final text prooved to be a "light" version of the previously leaked hardcore drafts.

Thus, we can conclude that the major lesson for future international negotiations involving intellectual property is that they must be transparent and they should try to incorporate ALL relevant actors, such as the BRIC countries and NGOs.



For the paper see:
ACTA: EVIL INSIDE?, MATĚJ MYŠKA, forth-coming presentation paper at the 2011 BILETA Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

http://www.law.mmu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ACTA-EVIL-INSIDE.pdf