USTR Told That TPP Would Apparently Give Too Many Intellectual Property Rights
LEESBURG, Va. -- Negotiators from 10 countries heard both sides of the intellectual property rights story, at a Sunday stakeholder engagement event hosted by the Office of U.S. Trade Representative. The event was designed to give stakeholders a chance to interact with the representatives of countries that are working on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
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A widely available leaked draft of the TPP leaves too much room for restrictive interpretation, said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Rashmi Rangnath, in a presentation on "Copyright Limitations and Exceptions in the TPP." Rangnath said the "three-step test" could give countries too much freedom in determining what constitutes legal unlicensed use of copyright material. She suggested negotiation proposals from the USTR spell out limitations and exceptions to IP laws in more detail.
Rangnath said stakeholders are working off of leaks of proposal drafts and criticized the lack of transparency surrounding the negotiations, referring to it as "a lockdown." Without access to the government's proposals, she said, "there''s no mechanism to hold them accountable." While she's unsure how much the leaked draft will resemble the final language, "my sense is that the most aggressive provisions will get watered down" after pushback from public interest groups and other countries participating in TPP negotiations, she said.
International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) counsel Steven Metalitz challenged those that criticize USTR for its lack of transparency. "It's quite understandable that people have this concern," he said, but there's little room for transparency in the negotiation process. The U.S. would need participants' cooperation in opening up the negotiations, Metalitz said.
The TPP's IP provisions can help more than just major content producers, said Copyright Alliance Executive Director Sandra Aistars. The TPP can provide "strong intellectual property protections for everybody," including the individual artists and content producers the alliance works with, she said. -- Kate Tummarello