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[Federal Register: February 15, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 32)]
[Notices]
[Page 8910-8911]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr15fe08-111]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): Request for Public Comments
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Request for written submissions from the public.
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SUMMARY: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
seeks to negotiate an anti-counterfeiting trade agreement to strengthen
international cooperation, enforcement practices, and participants’
legal frameworks to address counterfeiting and piracy. USTR requests
written comments from the public concerning specific matters that
should be the focus of such an agreement.
DATES: Submissions must be received on or before 5 p.m. on Friday,
March 21, 2008.
ADDRESS: All comments should be sent (i) electronically, to the
following e-mail address: ACTA@ustr.eop.gov, with “Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement (ACTA): Request for Public Comments” in the subject
line, or (ii) by fax, to Rachel Bae, at (202) 395-3891, with a
confirmation copy sent electronically to the e-mail address above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rachel S. Bae, Director for
Intellectual Property and Innovation, Office of the United States Trade
Representative, at (202) 395-4510.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 23, 2008, USTR announced that the
United States, along with a group of trading partners, would pursue
negotiation of a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to
provide international leadership in the fight against IPR
counterfeiting and piracy. The United States and other interested
parties intend to seek an agreement with provisions in three main
areas:
[[Page 8911]]
international cooperation, enforcement practices, and the legal
framework for IPR enforcement.
A principal goal of the ACTA would be to establish, among
governments committed to strong IPR protection, a common standard for
IPR enforcement to combat global infringements of IPR particularly in
the context of counterfeiting and piracy that addresses today’s
challenges, in terms of increasing international cooperation,
strengthening the framework of practices that contribute to effective
enforcement of IPRs, and strengthening relevant IPR enforcement
measures themselves. A fact sheet providing further details on the ACTA
can be found on the USTR Web site at: http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Reports_Publications/2007/asset_upload_file122_13414.pdf
.
Requirements for Comments: Comments should address specific matters
that should be covered by the ACTA in the areas of (a) international
cooperation; (b) enforcement practices; and (c) legal framework.
Comments should be as detailed as possible.
Comments must be in English. No submissions will be accepted via
postal service mail. Documents should be submitted as either
WordPerfect, MS Word, Adobe, or text (.TXT) files. Supporting
documentation submitted as spreadsheets is acceptable as Quattro Pro or
Excel files. A submitter requesting that information contained in a
comment be treated as confidential business information must certify
that such information is business confidential and would not
customarily be released to the public by the submitter. A non-
confidential version of the comment must also be provided. For any
document containing business confidential information, the file name of
the business confidential version should begin with the characters
“BC-”, and the file name of the public version should begin with the
character “P-”. The “P-” or “BC-” should be followed by the name
of the submitter. Submissions should not include separate cover
letters; information that might appear in a cover letter should be
included in the submission itself. To the extent possible, any
attachments to the submission should be included in the same file as
the submission itself, and not as separate files.
All comments should be sent (i) electronically, to the following e-
mail address: ACTA@ustr.eop.gov, with “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA): Request for Comments” in the subject line, or (ii)
by fax, to Rachel Bae, at (202) 395-9458, with a confirmation copy sent
electronically to the e-mail address above.
Public Inspection of Submissions: Within one business day of
receipt, non-confidential submissions will be placed in a public file,
open for inspection at the USTR reading room, Office of the United
States Trade Representative, Annex Building, 1724 F Street, NW., Room
1, Washington, DC. An appointment to review the file must be scheduled
at least 48 hours in advance and may be made by calling Jacqueline
Caldwell at (202) 395-6186. The USTR reading room is open to the public
from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through
Friday.
Stanford K. McCoy,
Acting Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property and Innovation.
[FR Doc. E8-2944 Filed 2-14-08; 8:45 am]