The annual Special 301 report is something we’ve covered a bit in the past, and the 2011 edition will be coming out soon. The USTR is requesting comments and submissions to be made for the 2011 edition for the public hearing on March 2nd. The deadline for submitting these is February 15th.
For those who don’t know about USTR’s Special 301 Report, it is a unilateral measure taken by the USTR which essentially ranks countries according to how much the US appreciates their IP regimes, and this is used as a kind of ‘shaming’ mechanism to coerce countries into ‘strengthening’ their IP regimes to match the TRIPS-plus standards that the US tries to promote.
Mike Palmedo of PIJIP has put forward a message in this regard which I’m posting below:
“Please see the linked sign-on submission to USTR for the 2011 Special 301 Report.
This is a very brief, very broad statement that PIJIP, EFF, Public Knowledge and KEI staff thought could get wide support. It says that the report shouldn’t be used to advance TRIPS+ or US+ intellectual property, or to force countries to sign the WIPO internet treaties or ACTA. It also discusses the process by which the report is written, and the unilateral 301 report’s awkward fit within the multilateral dispute resolution system set up by WTO. It asks the Obama administration to research a pro-development copyright policy for its trade policy objectives.
Please consider signing the submission, and circulating it to others who might be interested. To sign, send me your name and (if applicable) organization by emailing my at mpalmedo at wcl.american.edu.
Please send all signatures by the morning of Tuesday, February 15, 2011.”
The linked sign on submission to which he refers to is here.
