MEXICO.- The Mexican government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to "fight the problem of counterfeiting and piracy of brands, inventions, intellectual property and art pieces in the most efficient way" official sources informed today.
The director of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI in Spanish), Rodrigo Roque, confirmed the Mexican accession to the agreement in Japan, receiver of the treaty, even though the Mexican Senate had already asked them not to.
During statements on the MVS Network, the IMPI's representative, the institution that regulates everything regarding brands and patents in Mexico, believes his country "needs to send a strong message against this phenomenon" of piracy and counterfeit, which will be accomplished by signing the ACTA.
Regardless of the international treaty, signed in Tokyo by the Mexican Ambassador in Japan, Claude Heller still has to be ratified by the Upper House of the Mexican Congress.
"Mexico wants to send the message that we need to protect the copyrights of intellectual and artistic property, brands and inventions".
He stated that "a broad, plural and democratic ( ) debate" must be open regarding ACTA's suitability or lack thereof; said debate should include the opinion of Twitter and Internet users, who are amongst the toughest critics of ACTA in various countries.
Roque considers that it is necessary to respect the fundamental rights "like freedom of expression, access to culture and information, personal information and communication privacy" amongst others, something that, he thinks, will have to be part of the discussion that will allow to create the secondary law that will support ACTA.
This treaty is expected to fight internet piracy and the counterfeit of commercial brand products and illegal medicine through the internet.
According to the Mexican IMPI representative, besides respecting the rights of internet users "we need to have a legislation that will allow us to protect the rights that are being violated today and that affect Mexican businesses and authors as well as the companies that own the brands".
He added that in his country "there is a very big issue" for consumers regarding "medicine counterfeiting, quality of clothing and shoes" amongst other products.
"We cannot stop at just rejection, with just the negative of not having a tool ( ) If the Senate decides not to ratify ACTA it will be a decision of the Legislative branch and the Executive branch will respect the verdict".
On July of 2011 the own Mexican Senate asked the Executive branch not to join in the treaty because they considered the agreement itself could result in the imposition of wrongful censorship in the web.
Before, on November 24 of 2010 the Federal Commission of Telecommunications (COFETEL in Spanish) declared itself against the ACTA since the restrictions it implied "could wane the growth rhythm of (internet) users", 40 million at the moment.
Even with the disagreements, Roque states that, currently "we are in the worst of the worlds because we have no tool that allows us to, while respecting civil rights, protect the rights of intellectual property".
After the signing of the treaty with which Mexico joins Australia, Canada, Korea, the United States, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand and Singapur was made public, the issue has became a trending topic in the social networks with the hashtags #ACTA and #IMPI.
In the European Union (EU) 22 of the 27 common countries, including Spain, have already signed the document while others like Germany and Poland have asked for more time to study the matter and are still in that stage.
Last July 04 in a plenary session of the European Parliament ACTA was rejected by a vast majority claiming that it infringes the fundamental rights of internet users.
The international protest movement Avaaz immediately qualified the decision as a "triumph for democracy in Europe".
editorial@sandiegored.com
Translation: Karen B. Licea
