Comparison Of US, EU Treaties Highlights Differences On ISP Liability

Following the announcement that the United States and European Union will negotiate a free trade agreement, a comparison of recent US and EU treaties shows differences in their treatment of intellectual property.

The comparison evaluated language between two of the most substantive and recent free trade agreements adopted by the US and the EU for one controversial area of IP: liability for internet service providers (ISP) for infringing content. The comparison was done by infojustice.org, a blog of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law.

The side-by-side comparison can be found here.

Background on the EU-US announcement can be found here: (IPW, Bilateral/Regional Negotiations, 4 February 2013).