Special Issue on Anti-Counterfeiting - Oxford J. IP Law and Practice

The Oxford Journal ofIntellectual Property Law and Practice published a special issue on Anti-Counterfeiting. Full texts of the aricles are only accessible by subscribers but the Jounal's blog provides some editorial notes.

It does not seem that the editors' main concerns are the potential harmful effects by the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. One of the editor said in the blog that "the secrecy around the negotiations and the draft text has nourished the partially unjustified fears not only of Pirate Party partisans and anti-ACTA-activists, but also from MEPs and policy makers across all parties, and the EU data protection supervisor."

The special issue contains seven articles:

• Stephan Engels,Counterfeiting and piracy: the industry perspective [Abstract]
• James L. Bikoff, Keri A.F. Johnston, David K. Heasley, Phillip V. Marano, and Andrea Long, Hauling in the middleman: contributory trade mark infringement in North America [Abstract]
• Marius Haman, Africa rising to the anti-counterfeiting challenge [Abstract]
• Lambert Pechan and Marius Schneider, Carriers and trade mark infringements: should carriers care? [Abstract]
• Olivier Vrins, The real story of a fiction: transit after Montex under Regulation (EC) 1383/2003 [Abstract]
• Joe Cohen and Annick Mottet Haugaard, Monetary compensation for trade mark infringement in the European Union [Abstract]
• Benoit Godart, IP crime: the new face of organized crime: From IP theft to IP crime [Abstract]

ECJ on Resale Right

The European Court of Justice ruled on the author's resale right in a disute on paintings of Salvador Dalí who died on 23 January 1989. This concerns on the interpretation of Articles 6(1) and 8(2) and (3) of Directive 2001/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art (OJ 2001 L 272, p. 32).

According to the Directive, the resale right is an inalienable right which cannot be waived and defined as a right to receive a royalty based on the sale price obtained for any resale of the work, subsequent to the first transfer of the work by the author (Article 1(1)). The royalty is to be paid to author or after his death to those entitled under him/her (Article 6(1)).The term of resale right is the same as the term of author's right, i.e., for the life of the author and for 70 years after his death.

The decision is here.

Draft Text of ACTA to be Made Public Next Week (April 21st)

The Joint Statement of the ACTA 8th round indicated that a draft text would be made public on April 21th. The Statement also confirmed no mandatory "graduate response" or "three strikes rule" to repeat copyright infringers. But no mandatory rule does not seem to mean no de facto three strikes rule.

In a press release, USTR showed a continued controversy on the scope of ACTA. The EU still wants criminal enforcement and border measure extended to cover patent and other forms of intellectual property and the US opposes this proposal.

It is noteworthy to see how the negotiators's affirmation that "ACTA will not interfere with a signatory's ability to respect its citizens' fundamental rights and liberties, and will be consistent with the TRIPS Agreement" is reflected in the actual text.

Cooperation of US and Japan in Strengthening IP Protection

In the 2010 National Trade Estimate Report on Japan, the US Government (USTR) suggests its collaboration with Japan in efforts to strengthen the IP protection around the world, especially in Asia. The measures that USTR urges Japan to take include:

• improving copyright protection and enforcement;
• improving the efficacy of the patent application process; and
• actively working with the United States to develop ways to promote greater protection of IPR worldwide, especially in Asia.

The Report does not provide detailed information on the cooperation for the greater IP protection. But ACTA is a clear example of such a collaboration where they presented joint proposals.