The administration has characterized the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement as “an ambitious, next-generation, Asia-Pacific trade agreement.” It is being negotiated with Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru Singapore and Vietnam — with Canada and Mexico as set to join.
CCIA supports the speedy completion of a high-quality “21st century” Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. A 21st-century agreement will contain provisions that permit the smooth functioning of the industry of the 21st century — the Internet. The Internet is visibly revolutionizing the way businesses — including small and medium enterprises — function. Without a smoothly functioning Internet, the negotiated provisions of TPP will not yield the desired gains for TPP citizens.
First, TPP must include balanced intellectual property rules. An intellectual property regime can allow technological progress only if it appropriately balances the competing interests between encouraging investment and enabling information access. Because the international trade regime has generally lacked flexible IP provisionis to promote innovation, it is necessary to modernize the IP provisions of the aging trade framework to be consistent with Internet and high-technology innovation.
Second, TPP should promote the free flow of information online, recognizing that blocking bits at the border is as much as affront to international free trade as blocking physical goods. The ability of U.S. businesses to operate effectively on a global scale depends fundamentally on open information flows. When foreign governments block online information, when businesses are impeded for using the Internet to reach international markets, when secure corporate communications are not assured, the collateral damage is done to U.S. exports and U.S. jobs.
Today, the European Commission announced that it was opening a full investigation into IBM’s behavior in the mainframe computer market. This follows many months during which a variety of companies and knowledgeable organizations have been providing evidence of IBM’s misconduct to the European Competition Directorate and during which the professional staff of the EU have…
Monday, June 28 was the day the U.S. Supreme Court was to decide the patent case of the century, Bilski v. Kappos, and bring clarity to the debacle of the 1998 State Street Bank decision. In State Street, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which hears all patent appeals) had upended centuries of tradition that assumed that…
The FCC is expected to release a report concluding that high speed Internet access is not being deployed quickly enough. In a study that could be released as early as today, the FCC is expected to point out that millions of Americans still do not have high speed broadband access, according to various news reports.…
A new study on the economic benefits of exceptions to copyright law released in Europe today by CCIA could help as policy makers around the world make decisions on how to balance copyright policy. The outcome of this study is particularly interesting for EU lawmakers, which are in the process of defining a complex innovation agenda until…
Brussels – Industries that rely on exceptions and limitations that balance copyright laws are growing 3 percent faster than the rest of the EU economy, according to a new study released by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. The study by SEO Economic Research took a conservative approach in the first attempt to quantify the…
Washington – A group called Consumer Watchdog, which has almost exclusively focused on regularly criticizing Google, recently undertook an effort to gather and release personal data it collected outside members of Congress’ homes over unsecured wireless networks. In their zeal to point out that this was something Google merely could have done, they have done…
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