Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is a multilateral treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement that did not enter into force. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, and would create a new governing body outside existing forums, such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the United Nations.
The agreement was signed in October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. In 2012, Mexico, the European Union and 22 countries that are member states of the European Union signed as well. Only one signatory has ratified the agreement, which would come into force in countries that ratified it after ratification by six countries.
Industrial groups with interests in copyright, trademarks and other types of intellectual property said that ACTA was a response to "the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works". Organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America and International Trademark Association are understood to have had a significant influence over the ACTA agenda.
Organisations representing citizens and non-governmental interests argued that ACTA could infringe fundamental rights including freedom of expression and privacy. ACTA has also been criticised by Doctors Without Borders for endangering access to medicines in developing countries. The nature of negotiations was criticized as secretive and has excluded non-governmental organizations, developing countries and the general public from the agreement's negotiation process and it has been described as policy laundering by critics including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Entertainment Consumers Association.
The signature of the EU and many of its member states resulted in widespread protests across Europe. European Parliament rapporteur Kader Arif resigned. His replacement, British MEP David Martin, recommended that the Parliament should reject ACTA, stating: "The intended benefits of this international agreement are far outweighed by the potential threats to civil liberties". On 4 July 2012, the European Parliament declined its consent, effectively rejecting it, 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions. After this rejection, no further action was taken to ratify the treaty.

Negotiations

Negotiations for the ACTA treaty are not part of any international body. ACTA was first developed by Japan and the United States in 2006. Canada, the European Union and Switzerland joined the preliminary talks throughout 2006 and 2007. Official negotiations began in June 2008, with Australia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Singapore joining the talks. The Senate of Mexico voted unanimously to withdraw Mexico from ACTA negotiations on 30 September 2010.

Round	Location	Date	Participants and discussion topics	Refs
1	Geneva	3–4 June 2008	Participants: Australia, the European Union, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore and United Arab Emirates
2	Washington, D.C.	29–31 July 2008
3	Tokyo	8–9 October 2008
4	Paris	15–18 December 2008
5	Rabat	16–17 July 2009	Participants: Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA Topics: international cooperation, enforcement practices and institutional issues.
6	Seoul	4–6 November 2009	Topics: enforcement in the digital environment and criminal enforcement.
7	Guadalajara	26–29 January 2010
8	Wellington	12–16 April 2010	Topics: border measures, enforcement procedures in the digital environment, criminal enforcement, civil enforcement, and transparency.
9	Lucerne	28 June – 1 July 2010

Leaks, publications and consultations

According to a 2008 European Union commentary there was at that stage no draft, but a leaked document constituted initial views as they had been circulated by some of the negotiating parties. Leaked details published in February 2009 showed the 6 chapter-division also present in the final text. Most discussion was focused on the "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights" chapter 2, which had the four sections also present in the final version: Civil Enforcement, Border Measures, Criminal Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in the Digital Environment. Apart from the participating governments, an advisory committee of large US-based multinational corporations was consulted on the content of the draft treaty, including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the International Intellectual Property Alliance. A 2009 Freedom of Information request showed that the following companies also received copies of the draft under a nondisclosure agreement: Google, eBay, Intel, Dell, News Corporation, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, and Verizon.
On 23 March 2010, the entire "18 January 2010 consolidated text" of sections 2.1 and 2.4 along with the demands of each negotiator was leaked to the public.
The negotiating parties published the then-current draft on 20 April 2010. In June 2010, a conference with "over 90 academics, practitioners and public interest organizations from six continents" concluded "that the terms of the publicly released draft of ACTA threaten numerous public interests, including every concern specifically disclaimed by negotiators." A group of over 75 law professors signed a letter to President Obama demanding that ACTA be halted and changed. A full consolidated text of the proposed ACTA, dated 1 July 2010, apparently coming from the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament was leaked providing the full text from the Luzern round of negotiations, including the name of the negotiating parties along with their positions.
The revised and final text, dated 15 November 2010, was leaked on 16 November 2010 by several websites.
On 16 April 2010, the negotiating countries issued a joint statement that they had reached unanimous agreement to make the consolidated text, as established at that round of negotiation, available to the public by 21 April. It was also decided to not release individual negotiating positions of countries. The final draft text was published on 20 April 2010. The final text was released on 15 November 2010, and published on 15 April 2011 in English, French and Spanish.

Negotiation mandates and positions

European Union

A draft Report from 26 August 2008 by the European Commission tried to establish a mandate from the European Parliament for the negotiation of ACTA. On 25 September 2008 the Council of the European Union adopted a resolution in support of ACTA. In November 2008 the European Commission described ACTA as an attempt to enforce intellectual property rights and states that countries involved in the negotiations see intellectual property rights as "a key instrument for their development and innovation policies". It argues:
In March 2010, a leaked draft negotiation text showed that the European Commission had proposed language in ACTA to require criminal penalties for "inciting, aiding and abetting" certain offenses, including "at least in cases of willful trademark counterfeiting and copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale." In a report published on 11 March 2009, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to "immediately make all documents related to the ongoing international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement publicly available".
The European Parliament resolution of 10 March 2010 on the transparency and state of play of the ACTA negotiations stated that "according to documents leaked, the ACTA negotiations touch on, among other things, pending EU legislation regarding the enforcement of IPRs and the so-called "Telecoms Package" and on existing EU legislation regarding e-commerce and data protection." The resolution furthermore states, "whereas the ongoing EU efforts to harmonise IPR enforcement measures should not be circumvented by trade negotiations that are outside the scope of normal EU decision-making processes." Also, that the enforcement of intellectual property rights, including patent, trademark, and copyright law, must be "accomplished in a manner that does not impede innovation or competition, undermine IPR limitations and personal data protection, restrict the free flow of information or unduly burden legitimate trade."
The resolution called for the European Commission and the European Council to "grant public and parliamentary access to ACTA negotiation texts and summaries, in accordance with" the Lisbon Treaty and "Regulation 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents." In the resolution, the European Parliament "deplores the calculated choice of the parties not to negotiate through well-established international bodies, such as WIPO and WTO, which have established frameworks for public information and consultation". The European Parliament asserted that under the Treaty of Lisbon the European Commission needed to provide "immediate and full information" to the European Parliament on international treaties, such as ACTA. The resolution also "stresses that, unless Parliament is immediately and fully informed at all stages of the negotiations, it reserves its right to take suitable action, including bringing a case before the Court of Justice in order to safeguard its prerogatives".