Consumer Group Wants ACTA Discussions Stopped Until Consumer Rights Are Represented In Negotiations

from the would-be-nice,-but-seems-unlikely dept

We've discussed in great detail how the current ACTA treaty has been mostly driven by corporate interests as a way to sneak in more draconian copyright laws through international treaty, rather than through legislative means. When consumer groups have requested a seat at the table, they've been rejected, even as industry lobbyists have had no problem being active participants in the process.

Now, a group called the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue has demanded ACTA negotiations be put on hold until consumer groups have a real seat at the table, or at least are given access to documents being negotiated. TACD raises a number of important issues, such as respecting privacy rights and the rights of developing nations, who are often trampled over when it comes to IP protectionism from developed countries. But best of all, it points out one of the most annoying things in all efforts by copyright holders to extend copyright protection: they never, ever present any evidence for why it's necessary. It's an evidence-free zone. TACD specifically requests that real evidence be used:

Public policy on the enforcement of intellectual property rights should be informed by creditable evidence, transparent and realistic assumptions and objective peer reviewed analysis. Multiple approaches to addressing the legitimate concerns of right owners and consumers should be considered.

• Statistics on counterfeiting and or infringement must be objective, accurate, and presented in the appropriate context.
• Statistics on counterfeit and substandard medicines should not be combined when this misleads policy makers about the extent of either problem. The solutions to counterfeit and substandard products are often quite different.
• Estimates of losses from infringements of intellectual property rights should be based upon realistic demand and usage parameters.
• Governments should collect and analyze statistics on the relationship between infringement and affordability of products.

Here's TACD's full proposal:

Filed Under: acta, consumer rights, copyright, counterfeiting, evidence, lobbyists, privacy, secrecy
Companies: tacd

Is It Trademark Infringement To Resell A Product You Legally Bought?

from the here-we-go-again... dept

It seems like we have a few of these cases every year or so, where some company that tries to maintain strict control over its distribution channels freaks out about people reselling products online. A few years ago it was a shampoo company that said no one could resell their shampoo bottles. Now, it's the famed cosmetics firm Mary Kay, who is claiming that an online retailer is violating its trademark.

The details of the case are pretty interesting. Basically, Mary Kay requires its "independent" distributors buy a certain amount of product every month to sell -- and the amount required is often a lot more than they can reasonably expect to sell. So, one former Mary Kay distributor set up a pretty good business in buying the "remnant" inventory from others at lower prices (better than being stuck with it completely) and then reselling it online. It's basically arbitraging the inefficiencies set up by Mary Kay's ridiculous system that pushes excess product onto its distributors.

But, of course, Mary Kay doesn't like any of this (despite the fact that it still gets paid for its product) -- and, in theory it should have no case due to the always popular first sale doctrine (i.e., you can resell stuff you bought). Except, Mary Kay is trying to get around this by claiming that the online seller's goods are "materially different" and thus first sale doesn't apply. Why are the products materially different? Apparently, they're old, expired and not supported any more -- which doesn't necessarily seem to be "materially different," but perhaps a judge will find otherwise.

Filed Under: consumer rights, resale, trademark
Companies: mary kay