Branka Totić, Director, IP Office
Branka Totić, Director of the Serbian Intellectual Property Office, says that Serbia is prepared to ratify ACTA as part of its efforts to joint the European Union, assuming the existing Member States ratify the Agreement and it comes into force.
Reports EuroActiv Serbia: “Totić dismissed fears that ACTA could lead to infringement of citizens rights, privacy and data protection rules, arguing that national implementation and judicial review of cases of suspected copyright violations would guard against this.” She said that the laws on the books were mostly strong enough to meet expectations, but that further efforts were needed in implementation. For instance, Serbia does not have specialized IP courts, legal cases last about two years, and sentences are often suspended.
ACTA’s critics have often noted that the Agreement, though negotiated by a relatively small group of countries, would set norms that would later be applied to other countries. See, for instance, Andrew Rens’ paper Collateral Damage: The Impact of ACTA and the Enforcement Agenda on the World’s Poorest People:
ACTA is being negotiated outside all of existing multinational frameworks and would create an entirely new international organization. Once the parties settle on the provisions, the rules will be applied to developing countries, especially emerging economies. According to the European Commission Trade Office, ‘[t]heultimate objective is that large emerging economies, where [IP rights] enforcement could be improved, such as China or Russia, will sign up to the global pact.’
UPDATE: Serbians Protest Against ACTA
On March 17, the Southeast Europe Times reported on protests against ACTA organized by the Pirate Party, which argued that “”ACTA runs contrary to the Serbian constitution, is harmful to free communication, to culture, science and education; it is vaguely written and thus subject to different interpretations. Therefore, it is in every way injurious to the citizens of Serbia.”
