Call for submissions on controversial ACTA negotiations

Commerce Minister Simon Power is calling for submissions in anticipation of the next round of ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement] talks scheduled for April 12-16 in Wellington.

Among the topics to be discussed by delegations (which include Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Switzerland, Morocco, and the US) will be the subject of digital copyright enforcement measures as well as range of intellectual property proposals in the digital arena.

This is the third round of public consultations on ACTA.

Although the talks are being conducted in secret, recent leaks indicate that there have been significant disagreements between the countries involved. Vocal critic of the ACTA negotiations, Michael Geist, has said that the latest leaks reveal that New Zealand is resisting U.S. attempts to include Digital Millenium Copyright-style anti-circumvention legislation and access controls, noting that the World Intellectual Property Organisation Internet treaties make this unessecary.

Submissions can be sent to: trademarks@med.govt.nz.  The closing date for submissions is Wednesday 31 March 2010.

The Ministry of Economic Development’s discussion paper can be found here.