From Summary & Conclusions:
“Overall, ACTA tilts the balance of IPR protection manifestly unfairly towards one group of beneficiaries of the right to property, IP right holders, and unfairly against others. It equally disproportionately interferes with a range of other fundamental rights, and provides or allows for the determination of such rights in procedures that fail to allow for the taking into account of the different, competing interests, but rather, stack all the weight at one end.”
(Source: webwereld.nl)
From the introduction and executive summary:
“The conclusions of this report are necessarily tentative. The report analyzes potential impacts of various ACTA provisions on access to medicines, primarily in the sense of raising intellectual property standards and enforcement measures on medicines in ways that could raise barriers to generic entry into developing country markets. A full assessment of ACTA’s actual impact on access to medicines depends on a multitude of interpretive choices by countries and the ACTA Committee in implementing the agreement, and thus will vary from country to country. On the whole, what appears clear is that, through a highly secretive process, ACTA negotiators created an agreement that shifts international ‘hard law’ rules and ‘soft law’ encouragements toward the interests of intellectual property rights holders. It makes enforcement of intellectual property rights in courts, at borders, by the government and by private parties easier, less costly, and more ‘deterrent’ in the level of penalties. In doing so, it increases the risks and consequences of wrongful searches, seizures, lawsuits and other enforcement actions against legitimate suppliers of generic medicines.”
(Source: techdirt.com)
