US Foreign Policy on Intellectual Property Rights
The United States government has a broadly coordinated, multi-pronged strategy for addressing Intellectual Property (IP) policy in the context of international trade agreements. This strategy was formulated by IP-driven industries based in the US and has been increasingly embraced by the US federal government in its trade negotiations over the last several decades. This strategy involves the coordinated use of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements between the US and other countries to maximize the rights of the US IP industry overseas. The main special interest driving US foreign policy on copyright is the major US movie and recording studios.
Multilateral legal regimes on intellectual property rights include regional and international treaties negotiated at the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), or the World Trade Organization TRIPS Council, as well as regional trade agreements such as the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The US also acts unilaterally through it’s
“Special 301” process that ranks countries according to their IPR policy, and focuses attention on countries that the US IP industry feels needs the greatest reform of its domestic laws. Countries put on the Office of the US Trade Representative’s
“Special 301 Report” become pressured into undertaking trade talks with the US to change their domestic IP laws and internal enforcement actions. A country being listed on the USTR’s “Special 301 Report” often leads to the signing of a
bilateral trade agreement between the US and the unsatisfactory foreign nation. Trade organizations can also begin a "Special 301" action against a foreign country by filing a
request to the USTR.
Below: US Ambassador Susan Schwab, top official at the Office of US Trade Representative and Bush Administration appointee:
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A gathering of over 90 legal academics, practitioners, and public interest organizations from 6 continents met at American University Washington College of Law last week to draft an Urgent Communique concerning the public interest aspects of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The international experts found that ACTA is a deeply flawed proposal created by a deeply flawed process ...
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United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 Report: Who's been naughty and who's been nice to US intellectual property interests (according to the USTR)? 2010 Country "Watch" Lists.
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The proposed global treaty to address intellectual property rights in a digital environment spurs letters, petitions to US Obama Administration to open the process to public view. The public interest and the concerns of developing countries and small business have been left out of international treaty negotiation process to date providing a skewed proposal, a new leak has confirmed.
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Broken Promises from the Obama Administration Keep Americans in the Dark About ACTA. Public interest groups today called on the US government to stop blocking the release of information about a secret intellectual property trade agreement with broad implications for privacy and innovation around the world. EFF and Public Knowledge said that the April 30th release of 36 pages ...
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"The negotiating text of ACTA and many other documents, including even the lists of participants in the negotiations, are secret. The US White House claims the secrecy is required as a matter of "national security". But that does not mean the documents are off limits to everyone outside of the government. Hundreds of advisors, many of them corporate lobbyists, ...
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"There are plans for the next ACTA negotiation to take place in Rabat, Morocco. However, since none of the Obama trade people have been placed at USTR, this might be delayed. The USTR is still maintaining secrecy over details of the negotiation, including the names of participants and all of the proposed texts for negotiations. Despite this, ...
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The World Trade Organization yesterday released its much-anticipated decision involving a U.S. complaint against China over its protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. The U.S. quickly proclaimed victory, with newspaper headlines trumpeting the WTO panel's requirement that China reform elements of its intellectual property laws. For its part, China was conciliatory and offered to work with the ...
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Read the WTO Decision Here. The WTO, on 26 January 2009, issued the report of a panel that had examined United States’ complaint against “China — Measures affecting the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights” (DS362).
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"As negotiations on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) continued in Paris this week with again no public details the European Parliament Thursday sent a strong signal by requesting transparency in the negotiations. Parliament meeting in Strasbourg on 18 December passed a resolution on the impact of counterfeiting in international trade “calls on the [European] Commission and the member ...
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The meeting was opened by French Trade Minister, Mrs. Anne-Marie Idrac, who reaffirmed the strong commitment of the EU in favour of intellectual property rights (IPR), against counterfeiting and piracy, and called for constructive and ambitious negotiations. Participants reaffirmed their commitments to negotiate an agreement to combat global infringements of IPR, particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy, ...
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Industry submissions to the USTR regarding its Special 301 list to recommend trade sanctions against foreign countries....
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Deadline: 21 March 2008. 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.
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"The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has requested written submissions from the public "concerning foreign countries' acts, policies, and practices that are relevant to the decision as to whether particular trading partners should be identified" in its Special 301 List. The USTR's Special 301 Lists are used to impose trade sanction on foreign countries that do not adhere to ...
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The Australian government has launched a public consultation on its possible involvement in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations. Unlike the Canadian government, which jumped at the chance to join the U.S. in the negotiations with no advance warning and no public discussion, the Australians are taking the time to ask the public whether it thinks the country should participate ...
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Lawmakers in the United States concerned that global counterfeiting and piracy are hurting American business on Wednesday introduced two bills aimed at curbing the practices, and said they want more international cooperation to do so. Senators Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, and George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio, introduced the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Act, which would establish an ...
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The United States House of Representatives is poised to pass the US-Peru free trade agreement this week, in the first test of the new “bipartisan trade policy” that led to the renegotiation of trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, Peru and South Korea. The Peru pact includes new provisions that congressional Democrats negotiated with the Bush administration with the aim ...
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"Under “Special 301” enacted in 1988, USTR identifies countries that denied “adequate and effective protection” of US intellectual property or that denied “fair and equitable market access” to US intellectual property holders. Any “interested person” can file a petition asking USTR to launch Section 301 investigation and deny trade benefits to a country. Often, industry trade organizations such ...
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Nobel laureate and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz believes that no country should enter into free trade agreements with the US, as none of the developing countries has benefited greatly from them.
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"The United States and Korea entered into a historic "Free Trade" Agreement (FTA) in April 2007. Chapter 18 of the FTA deals with Intellectual Property Rights. This memorandum will go through and explain each major article discussed in the chapter and where relevant, will contrast these provisions with those of the TRIPS agreement. This memorandum will also ...
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United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 Report: Who's been naughty and who's been nice to US intellectual property interests (according to the USTR)? 2010 Country "Watch" Lists.
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"The USTR said Israel is judged by different standards than others in its watch list tier which don't have as advanced economies. "Our expectations of those countries may not be as high as they are for Israel," said an official in the USTR, speaking on background. "We look at Israel relative to its very high level of development." ...
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"I have now been uninvited to the Public Policy Forum (“PPF”) IP program entitled INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REFORM: INNOVATION AND THE ECONOMY on April 28, 2008, which will now proceed without me on the program. It seems that strong pressure was brought to bear on PPF to have me removed from the program and that PPF capitulated. The presentation ...
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Report Highlights US Industry Desire for More Restrictive Intellectual Property Protection, Acknowledges Compliance by Some US Trading Partners....
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The “Special 301” Report is an annual review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement, conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) pursuant to Special 301 provisions of the Trade Act of 1974 (Trade Act). The 2008 Special 301 review process examined IPR protection and enforcement in 78 countries. ...
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"The U.S. Trade Representative has released its annual Special 301 report, in which it criticizes dozens of countries over their intellectual property laws while ignoring its own shortcomings. Despite demands from the copyright lobby that Canada be placed on the "Priority Watch List," Canada is again on the lower level Watch List along with 35 other countries including Norway, ...
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On Friday, April 25th, the Office of the United States Trade Representative issued its 2008 Special 301 report. Nine countries were placed on the naughtiest of the naughty list, the Priority Watch List: China, Russia, Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela. Of these China gets the most extensive treatment. Thirty-six countries were placed on the naughty list, the ...
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Industry submissions to the USTR regarding its Special 301 list to recommend trade sanctions against foreign countries....
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Deadline: 21 March 2008. 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.
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