Public Interest Groups Sue US Trade Representative Over ‘Secret’ Enforcement Treaty

Perhaps no topic over the past year has been cause for more uneasy speculation within the intellectual property community than the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), primarily because the negotiating process for this treaty has been behind tightly closed doors. Now two US-based public interest organisations have filed suit against the US trade office in charge of the negotiations, in hopes of being able to gain access to the records currently under lock and key.

ACTA was announced in October 2007 as a partnership to combat counterfeiting and piracy that the US and several of its trading partners view as critical threats to their businesses and the cause of billions of dollars in lost revenue annually.

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Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a California non-profit focussing on the defence of civil liberties in the digital age, and Public Knowledge, a Washington, DC non-profit engaged in consumer advocacy on issues of intellectual property law and technology have filed suit against the USTR to try and obtain the information.