Intellectual Property Rights Watch and Yale are suing the USTR over TPP access

[cali]

ntellectual Property Watch has been working for several years to obtain more details about the intellectual property aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and a subsequent lawsuit to enforce that request, which is being led by a team at the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School (MFIA). Today MFIA, a program of Yale’s Information Society Project and Abrams Institute, released an update on the case.

The MFIA Clinic is bringing a FOIA suit to compel the USTR to disclose information about the draft texts of the agreement, the US negotiating positions, and the advice negotiators are receiving from industry trade advisers. Update on recent developments below.

(It is noted that as an independent media agency, Intellectual Property Watch takes no position on the actual substance of the negotiations, but is simply seeking to report on them in an informed way (beyond just the meeting dates and topics on the agenda).

On April 3, 2015, Intellectual Property Watch (IP-Watch) completed its written arguments to the federal district court in Manhattan in a case that could compel the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to release basic information regarding USTR’s negotiations over the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. In particular, IP-Watch’s lawsuit and summary judgment motion asks U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos to order USTR to release documents that relate to the intellectual property provisions of the TPP—including USTR’s final negotiating positions, the portions of the draft agreement that the U.S. has proposed or adopted, and communications between USTR and the industry representatives who sit on Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs). Both IP-Watch and USTR have filed opposing summary judgment motions and are now waiting for Judge Ramos to rule on the case.

<snip>

http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/04/21/yaleip-watch-effort-to-open-tpp-updated/

[cali]

1. interesting and disturbing information:

The litigation follows USTR’s denial of IP-Watch’s March 2012 FOIA request. USTR did not respond to IP-Watch’s request for more than a year. When it did respond, it withheld the majority of the documents it located, and produced only a fraction of the email traffic between USTR and ITAC members with very heavy redactions. In December 2013, IP-Watch filed its lawsuit to enforce the public’s right of access under the Freedom of Information Act. IP-Watch’s lawsuit prompted USTR to re-review and release additional, less redacted email communications and certain other documents that it had previously withheld—effectively admitting that the agency had for years kept far too much information secret. But the agency continues to refuse to release any documents containing information regarding the TPP’s actual contents, or the ITAC members’ detailed comments on the draft language of the agreement. Most notably, USTR has invoked the national security classification system to withhold any documents that contain U.S. proposals, negotiating positions or draft language for the agreement. USTR has argued that disclosure of such information to the public would harm foreign relations, even though all such material has already been disclosed to the other countries participating in the negotiations.

[GoneFishin]

2. This claim of national security is preposterous. This claim has been used more to hide embarrassing

and politically inconvenient facts than to protect legitimate national security interests. At this point it has been abused so often that when I hear that claim asserted I just assume that they are lying their asses off or have something embarrassing or inconvenient to hide.

They have turned it into somewhat of a joke.

[cali]

3. It's contemptible. and clearly they're lying they're fuckwad asses off here

Most transparent administration ever. NOT

[Omaha Steve]

4. Transparency NOT!

K&R!

OS

[cali]

5. kick for real information

[Katashi_itto]

6. K&R!

[cali]

7. thanks for the kick

[KoKo]

8. Recommend for Exposure..... eom