[Ecommerce] still "plenty of time" to send your comments on the FTAA Second Draft Chapter on IP!

[Manon Anne Ress]

Dear Colleagues,
Sorry for cross-posting:
there are still "plenty of time" to send your comments on the FTAA 
Second Draft Chapter on IP!

According to the Fed. Notice December 27, 2002  in the Federal Register, 
67 Fed. Reg.249.   (see notice at http://www.cptech.org/ip/ftaa/) 
comments can be sent to the FTAA CIVIL SOCIETY COMMITTEE UNTIL MAY 1, 
2003.
If you've sent something to the USTR you can send it also to the Civil 
Society Cee...see:
http://www.ftaa-alca.org/spcomm/derdoc/dcs15e.asp
You need the cover letter provided on the FTAA site at the Open and 
Ongoing Invitation and an executive summary if greater than 5 pages. 
Short document will be translated by the secretariat. (note they're 
moving in Feb. so check the address when you send)

In its Press Communique the IP Negotiating Group stated that it has not 
received any new civil society contributions since its Seventeenth 
Meeting.

The USTR Request for comments suggested that January 31, 2001 was a 
strict deadline BUT it also reads  "submissions will be accepted through 
FEBRUARY 28, 2003 and [snip] will be taken into consideration to the 
extent practicable."

Areas of concerns include provisions relating to:

1) database treaty
Article 5 [(m) of the General Provisions and Basic Principles requires 
all FTAA countries to "give effect" to a non-existing treaty on database 
that has been opposed in the US for years.

2) trademarks,
Article 13.1 mandates that FTAA countries rely on a private and 
unaccountable body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and 
Numbers (ICANN) to resolve domain names disputes, including disputes 
with free speech implications

3) copyrights
Term Extension  (Article 10.1a) and b) no "fair use language", DMCA like 
language without exceptions  (Article 21)

4) patents.   SECTION 5. PATENTS [FOR INVENTIONS] Article 3. Rights 
Conferred
The draft text of the FTAA would give greater protection to 
pharmaceutical companies than TRIPS itself by at the expense of public 
health by limiting the use of compulsory licenses “only for public 
non-commercial ends or in situations of a declared national emergency or 
other situations of extreme urgency” (See Article 3 paragraph 5.1).
There's a proposal to extend patents beyond the 20 years granted under TRIPS
and a proposal  that would make information relative to the safety and 
effectiveness of a pharmaceutical or agricultural product be the 
exclusive property of the patent holder for five years (making it very 
difficult generic producers because they will have to replicate all of 
the tests performed by the patent holder instead of demonstrating the 
“bioequivalency” of their product)

Let me know if you get your hands on good comments in 
English/Spanish/Portuguese!

Manon



-- 
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176