G8 Declaration on the World Economy

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

17. Effective promotion and protection of IPR are critical to the development of creative products, technologies and economies. We will advance existing anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiatives through,inter alia, promoting information exchange systems amongst our authorities, as well as developing non-binding Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at the World Customs Organization.

We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade

Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year. We will promote practical cooperation between our countries to develop tools to combat new techniques in counterfeiting and piracy and spread best practices.

We reaffirm our commitment on government use of software in full compliance with the relevant international agreements and call on other countries to follow our commitment.

18. Firmly believing that an efficient and well-functioning IP system benefits countries at all stages of development, we:

  (a)reaffirm the importance of global patent harmonization and expanding international patent collaboration, including accelerated discussions on the Substantive Patent Law Treaty; and

  (b)welcome the progress achieved in the G8 technical assistance pilot plans as well as the launch of additional pilot plans and joint outreach programs for public awareness in these countries.

The link to the source document is located on the website of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at  http://www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/doc/doc080709_01_en.html