米国・メキシコ・カナダ協定（USMCA）が7月1日に発効した。メキシコ政府は6月29日付官報において、USMCAを北米自由貿易協定（NAFTA）に代えて発効させ、新たに新設されたのは、連邦産業財産権保護法、品質インフラ法（基準認証に関する新法）であり、改定されたのは連邦刑法と連邦著作権法である。知財関連が多く、USMCAの知的財産の章の先進的内容を反映するためのもの。
情報源: USMCAが発効、国内法整備も完了(カナダ、米国、メキシコ) | ビジネス短信 – ジェトロ
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The United States, Mexico, and Canada have reached an agreement on a modernized, high-standard Intellectual Property (IP) chapter that provides strong and effective protection and enforcement of IP rights critical to driving innovation, creating economic growth, and supporting American jobs.
Key Highlights: Protections for United States Innovators and Creators
The new IP Chapter will:
- Require full national treatment for copyright and related rights so United States creators are not deprived of the same protections that domestic creators receive in a foreign market.
- Continue to provide strong patent protection for innovators by enshrining patentability standards and patent office best practices to ensure that United States innovators, including small- and medium-sized businesses, are able to protect their inventions with patents.
- Include strong protection for pharmaceutical and agricultural innovators.
- Require a minimum copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years, and for those works with a copyright term that is not based on the life of a person, a minimum of 75 years after first authorized publication.
- Require strong standards against the circumvention of technological protection measures that often protect works such as digital music, movies, and books.
- Establish appropriate copyright safe harbors to provide protection for IP and predictability for legitimate enterprises that do not directly benefit from the infringement, consistent with United States law.
- Provide important procedural safeguards for recognition of new geographical indications (GIs), including strong standards for protection against issuances of GIs that would prevent United States producers from using common names, as well as establish a mechanism for consultation between the Parties on future GIs pursuant to international agreements.
- Enhance provisions for protecting trademarks, including well-known marks, to help companies that have invested effort and resources into establishing goodwill for their brands.
Key Achievement: Most Comprehensive Enforcement Provisions of Any Trade Agreement
For the first time, a trade agreement will require all of the following:
- Ex officio authority for law enforcement officials to stop suspected counterfeit or pirated goods at every phase of entering, exiting, and transiting through the territory of any Party.
- Express recognition that IP enforcement procedures must be available for the digital environment for trademark and copyright or related rights infringement.
- Meaningful criminal procedures and penalties for unauthorized camcording of movies, which is a significant source of pirated movies online.
- Civil and criminal penalties for satellite and cable signal theft.
- Broad protection against trade secret theft, including against state-owned enterprises.
Key Achievement: Strongest Standards of Protection for Trade Secrets of Any Prior FTA
In particular, the Chapter has the most robust protection for trade secrets of any prior United States trade agreement. It includes all of the following protections against misappropriation of trade secrets, including by state-owned enterprises: civil procedures and remedies, criminal procedures and penalties, prohibitions against impeding licensing of trade secrets, judicial procedures to prevent disclosure of trade secrets during the litigation process, and penalties for government officials for the unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets.
