A few days ago, we reported that India and China were going to take a brazen stand at the WTO TRIPS Council meeting, confronting several issues that emerged in relation to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (see our earlier posts on ACTA). While misgivings about the substantive provisions have continued for a while now, the wider concerns of non-negotiating countries such as India and China revolve around the undesirable precedent of multilateral and bilateral agreements mandating ACTA-implementation and the incorporation of

When it comes to a discussion on the ACTA, the variables remain the same, and not much seems to have changed. The negotiations run their own course, in intermittent phases of secrecy and sudden displays of transparency, while civil society groups and other bodies continue their opposition, unabated. But more recently, we have seen the coming together of those countries that have been excluded from the entire process, making concerted efforts towards voicing their concerns at international fora. Recently, we