Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Becomes Effective 1 November 2011 

On 1 October 2011, eight negotiating participants of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), namely, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States, gathered in Tokyo, Japan and signed the agreement.  

The remaining three negotiating partners, the European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland, also attended the signing ceremony and confirmed their preparations to sign the agreement, which is open for signature on voluntary basis until 31 March 2013.

According to the provision of the agreement per se, ACTA will enter into effect 30 days upon its ratification by the sixth signatory. On this basis, the agreement will come into force on 1 November 2011.

ACTA is an initiative developed by Japan, the United States and some key partners since 2006 and reached a general agreement in October 2010, followed by the completion of technical and translation work in April 2011. It aims to call for plurilateral efforts to strengthen international legal framework for combating commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy in a global context.  

Full text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is available here.