[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 32 (Friday, February 15, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8910-8911]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-2944]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): Request for Public 
Comments

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Request for written submissions from the public.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) 
seeks to negotiate an anti-counterfeiting trade agreement to strengthen 
international cooperation, enforcement practices, and participants' 
legal frameworks to address counterfeiting and piracy. USTR requests 
written comments from the public concerning specific matters that 
should be the focus of such an agreement.

DATES: Submissions must be received on or before 5 p.m. on Friday, 
March 21, 2008.

ADDRESS: All comments should be sent (i) electronically, to the 
following e-mail address: [email protected], with ``Anti-Counterfeiting 
Trade Agreement (ACTA): Request for Public Comments'' in the subject 
line, or (ii) by fax, to Rachel Bae, at (202) 395-3891, with a 
confirmation copy sent electronically to the e-mail address above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rachel S. Bae, Director for 
Intellectual Property and Innovation, Office of the United States Trade 
Representative, at (202) 395-4510.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 23, 2008, USTR announced that the 
United States, along with a group of trading partners, would pursue 
negotiation of a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to 
provide international leadership in the fight against IPR 
counterfeiting and piracy. The United States and other interested 
parties intend to seek an agreement with provisions in three main 
areas:

[[Page 8911]]

international cooperation, enforcement practices, and the legal 
framework for IPR enforcement.
    A principal goal of the ACTA would be to establish, among 
governments committed to strong IPR protection, a common standard for 
IPR enforcement to combat global infringements of IPR particularly in 
the context of counterfeiting and piracy that addresses today's 
challenges, in terms of increasing international cooperation, 
strengthening the framework of practices that contribute to effective 
enforcement of IPRs, and strengthening relevant IPR enforcement 
measures themselves. A fact sheet providing further details on the ACTA 
can be found on the USTR Web site at: http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Reports_Publications/2007/asset_upload_file122_13414.pdf.
    Requirements for Comments: Comments should address specific matters 
that should be covered by the ACTA in the areas of (a) international 
cooperation; (b) enforcement practices; and (c) legal framework. 
Comments should be as detailed as possible.
    Comments must be in English. No submissions will be accepted via 
postal service mail. Documents should be submitted as either 
WordPerfect, MS Word, Adobe, or text (.TXT) files. Supporting 
documentation submitted as spreadsheets is acceptable as Quattro Pro or 
Excel files. A submitter requesting that information contained in a 
comment be treated as confidential business information must certify 
that such information is business confidential and would not 
customarily be released to the public by the submitter. A non-
confidential version of the comment must also be provided. For any 
document containing business confidential information, the file name of 
the business confidential version should begin with the characters 
``BC-'', and the file name of the public version should begin with the 
character ``P-''. The ``P-'' or ``BC-'' should be followed by the name 
of the submitter. Submissions should not include separate cover 
letters; information that might appear in a cover letter should be 
included in the submission itself. To the extent possible, any 
attachments to the submission should be included in the same file as 
the submission itself, and not as separate files.
    All comments should be sent (i) electronically, to the following e-
mail address: [email protected], with ``Anti-Counterfeiting Trade 
Agreement (ACTA): Request for Comments'' in the subject line, or (ii) 
by fax, to Rachel Bae, at (202) 395-9458, with a confirmation copy sent 
electronically to the e-mail address above.
    Public Inspection of Submissions: Within one business day of 
receipt, non-confidential submissions will be placed in a public file, 
open for inspection at the USTR reading room, Office of the United 
States Trade Representative, Annex Building, 1724 F Street, NW., Room 
1, Washington, DC. An appointment to review the file must be scheduled 
at least 48 hours in advance and may be made by calling Jacqueline 
Caldwell at (202) 395-6186. The USTR reading room is open to the public 
from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through 
Friday.

Stanford K. McCoy,
Acting Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property and Innovation.
[FR Doc. E8-2944 Filed 2-14-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-W8-P