Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a global effort to improve and create international standards for the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights laws against large scale IP Rights (IPR) infringements. The primary components of ACTA include (1) international cooperation (2) enforcement practices and (3)legal framework to enforce IPR.[1] On October 1, 2011, United States, Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Morocco, and Singapore signed ACTA during a ceremony in Tokyo, Japan. Representatives of the EU, Mexico and Switzerland were present during the signing ceremony and expected to seal the agreement in the future.[2] The final Text of ACTA is available here
Background
In 2006, Japan and the United States introduced the idea of a new plurilateral treaty to combat counterfeiting and piracy which was called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to bring together interested all governments worldwide that are willing to cooperate to improve the international standards to enforce the protection of Intellectual Property Rights. The negotiation started on June 2008.[3]