Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2011
Journal Title
SMU Law Review
ISSN
1066-1271
Abstract
In April 2009, Japan, the United States, the European Community, and other negotiating parties of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement released a joint consolidated draft of the once-secret agreement. Although the release of this document has alleviated some of the concerns about the lack of transparency and public participation, there remain many unanswered questions.
Written for a symposium on intellectual property law, this article argues that ACTA remains highly problematic and dangerous. It identifies six different fears of the Agreement: (1) concerns over the procedural defects of the ACTA negotiation process; (2) the potential for ACTA to ratchet up the already very high existing intellectual property standards within the United States; (3) ACTA would undoubtedly lead to greater protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights abroad, especially in developing countries; (4) ACTA could backfire on U.S. consumers and businesses, even if no legislative changes are indeed required to meet the new treaty obligations; (5) ACTA would result in the development of a new, freestanding, and self-reinforcing infrastructure for facilitating future efforts to ratchet up international intellectual property standards; (6) ACTA is unlikely to be as effective as rights holders and policymakers in the negotiating parties have anticipated.
First Page
975
Last Page
1094
Num Pages
120
Volume Number
64
Issue Number
3
Publisher
Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law
Recommended Citation
Peter K. Yu,
Six Secret (and Now Open) Fears of ACTA,
64
SMU L. Rev.
975
(2011).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/438