[Ecommerce] RE: Question on US-Chile Agreement IP Provisions

[John T. Mitchell]

Manon, it's my understanding that the text is not yet finalized, so all
we have is what people are saying about it.  The Chilean Trade
Commission site has a placeholder for posting it:
http://www.chileinfo.com/fta/mi_agreement.html.  The Chilean legislature
started getting briefings on it late last month, and I understand there
have been public complaints in Chile about the secrecy surrounding it.

I noted with some amusement that even Jack Valenti spoke as though the
MPAA hadn't seen it yet in his press statement of December 11, 2002 ("we
look forward to examining the details of these complex, technical
provisions").  

>From a few summaries I've seen, I can't see whether there is a devil is
in the details.  The Chilean "official" summary seems to be about the
same as that of the USTR you posted.

John
______________________________
John T. Mitchell
John@InteractionLaw.com
http://interactionlaw.com
202-415-9213


-----Original Message-----
From: Manon Anne Ress [mailto:manon.ress@cptech.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 12:17 PM
To: John@InteractionLaw.com; Lawfuluse List; ecommerce
Subject: Question on US-Chile Agreement IP Provisions


Dear John and Colleagues,
Sorry for crossposting this.
Last week at a meeting at Public Knowledge we talked about the FTAA IP 
articles and their implications. I think John Mitchell mentioned that he

had work on Chile, and maybe he could help me with this.
1)I'm trying to find the 800 pages US-Chile Agreement but with no 
success.
2)The question is: are there substantial differences between the FTAA 
draft and the US Chile agreement?  Maybe one of you know if the 
copyrights related provisions were consistent with the FTAA provisions 
(no exceptions etc..) or was the text more "balanced" reflecting the 
DMCA as is mentioned in the USTR summary below?
Thanks
Manon

http://www.ustr.gov/
Summary of the U.S.- Chile Free Trade Agreement
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
. High Level of IPR Protection
- Protection of copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets is 
state-of-the-art, going farther than previous free-trade agreements. 
Enforcement of intellectual property rights is also enhanced under this 
Agreement.
- Non-discriminatory treatment for U.S. intellectual property 
transmitted over the Internet.
. Trademarks: State-of-the-Art Protection in the Digital Age
- Ensures government involvement in resolving disputes between 
trademarks and Internet domain names, which is important to prevent 
"cyber-squatting" of trademarked domain names.
- Applies principle of "first-in-time, first-in-right" to trademarks and

geographical indicators (place-names) applied to products. This means 
that the first to file for a trademark is granted the first right to use

that name, phrase or geographical place-name.
. Copyrights: Protection for Copyrighted Works in A Digital Economy
- Ensures that only authors, composers and other copyright owners have 
the right the make their works available online. Copyright owners 
maintain all rights to even temporary copies of their works on 
computers, which is important in protecting music, videos, software and 
text from widespread unauthorized sharing via the Internet.
- Copyrighted works and phonograms are protected for extended terms, 
consistent with U.S. standards and international trends.
- Strong anti-circumvention provisions to prohibit tampering with 
technologies (like embedded codes on discs) that are designed to prevent

piracy and unauthorized distribution over the Internet.
- Ensures that governments only use legitimate computer software, thus 
setting a positive example for private users.
- Limited liability for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), reflecting 
the balance struck in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act between 
legitimate ISP activity and the infringement of copyrights.
-- 
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