Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Please provide any past and current draft(s) of the "Civil
Enforcement", "Border Measures", "Criminal Enforcement", and
"Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in the Digital
Environment" sections of ACTA.

Please also provide any past and current draft(s) of the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, EU proposal: September 23, 2008"; "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)Non-Paper on institutional issues under the Agreement. June 9, 2008"; "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), summary of comments on Border Measures"; and "7. Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement [Definitions] Discussion Draft: May 8, 2008"

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Price

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

BIS ref: 12/0151

Dear Mr Price,

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 1
February 2012. Your request has been passed on to the appropriate official
at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to deal with.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be responded at the latest by 29 February
2012.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the information
rights unit at BIS. Please remember to quote the reference number above in
any future communications.

Kind regards,
Information Rights Unit

Security and Information Rights Unit | Department for Business, Innovation
& Skills  | Victoria 3, 5th Floor, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H OET|
[1]www.bis.gov.uk

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is making a
difference by supporting sustained growth and higher skills across the
economy. BIS: working together for growth

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Dear Mr Price

Thank you for your request (ref 12/0151). This has been passed to the
Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to answer.
IPO is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovations and
Skills. If you have any queries please contact: [email address]

Yours sincerely

Tom Meechan
Information Rights Unit
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
[email address]

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

5 Attachments

Dear Mr Price

Please see the letter and attachments regarding your information request.

Yours sincerely

Alison Smith
Records officer
Intellectual Property Office
Tel: 01633 814587

<<Andrew Price response.docx>> <<tradoc_147002 (ACTA Nov 2010).pdf>>
<<st12196.en11 (ACTA final).pdf>> <<tradoc_146029 (ACTA predicisional
April 2010).pdf>> <<tradoc_146699 (ACTA consolidated Oct 2010).pdf>>

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills's handling of my FOI request 'Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations'.

I need access to the documents I requested as those requested documents are "preparatory work" documents used during the negotations of ACTA. I need access to these "preparatory work" docuemnts so I can try to interpret ACTA adequatly. I believe these documents are covered under Article 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties ( http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instrum... ).

From the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties:

"Recourse may be had to supplementary means of interpretation, including the preparatory work of the treaty and the circumstances of its conclusion, in order to confirm the meaning resulting from the application of article 31 [General rule of interpretation], or to determine the meaning when the interpretation according to article 31:

(a) leaves the meaning ambiguous or obscure; or
(b) leads to a result which is manifestly absurd or unreasonable."

Without those "preparatory work" documents, I don't think I will be able to gauge the potential impact of ACTA.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/an...

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Price

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Dear Mr Price,

Thank you for your request for an internal review which was received on 21
March 2012. Your request has been passed on to the appropriate official at
the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to deal with. We apologise for the
delay in acknowledging your request.

In line with the Information Commissioner's guidance, internal reviews
should be responded to within 20 working days unless they are complex, in
which case a response should be sent within 40 working days. Please be
aware that this does not include weekends and bank holidays.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the information
rights unit at the IPO.

Kind regards,
Debbie Cooke
Intellectual Property Office
Tel: 01633 814140

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Price,

Please see the letter regarding your request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely

Alison Smith
Records officer
Intellectual Property Office
Tel: 01633 814587
<<ACTA FOI.docx>>

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.