Intellectual Property Enforcement A Commentary on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

Contents: Preface 1. Impacts of Counterfeiting and Piracy 2. Negotiating ACTA 3. Preamble 4. Initial Provisions and Definitions 5. Legal Framework 6. Civil Enforcement 7. Border Measures 8. Criminal Enforcement 9. Confiscation 10. Enforcement in the Digital Environment 11. Enforcement Practices 12. International Cooperation 13. Institutional Arrangements 14. Final Provisions Appendix: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Index

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‘. . . this timely work of reference and research presents a thorough, scholarly and certainly readable examination of this newly enacted worldwide initiative, which has been signed by almost 40 nations footnoted in the book’s appendix, which contains the text of the ACTA itself. . . This important book should be required reading for all IP practitioners, academics, students and policy makers concerned with the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Extensively footnoted, with a detailed index at the back, this impressively analytical volume opens up any number of avenues for further research.’
– Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor, The Barrister Magazine

‘Professor Blakeney has written a detailed work on the current state of international enforcement of intellectual property rights. Using the background to, and the negotiation of, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, as well as the provisions of the ACTA itself, the book is a mine of information and analysis. Professor Blakeney’s long experience of work on the laws and practice of IPR enforcement as a right-holder, an administrator, and as an academic and researcher, are second to none and it shows in this all-encompassing work.’
– John Anderson, Global Anti-Counterfeiting Network

This important book is the first detailed analytical treatment of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and its impact on intellectual property enforcement. The ACTA had been formulated to deal with the burgeoning growth in the trade in counterfeit and pirate products which was estimated to have increased ten-fold since the promulgation of the TRIPS Agreement in 1994.

The book clarifies how the ACTA supplements the enforcement provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, namely by: expanding the reach of border protection to infringing goods in transit; providing greater detail of the implementation of civil enforcement and; providing for the confiscation of the proceeds of intellectual property crimes. As the book illustrates, a significant additional innovation is the introduction of provisions dealing with enforcement of intellectual property rights in the digital environment.

This book will strongly appeal to intellectual property rights policymakers, legal practitioners, academics and students.