By Kaitlin Mara

Perhaps no topic over the past year has been cause for more uneasy speculation within the intellectual property community than the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), primarily because the negotiating process for this treaty has been behind tightly closed doors. Now two US-based public interest organisations have filed suit against the US trade office in charge of the negotiations, in hopes of being able to gain access to the records currently under lock and key.

ACTA was announced in October 2007 as a partnership to combat counterfeiting and piracy that the US and several of its trading partners view as critical threats to their businesses and the cause of billions of dollars in lost revenue annually.

But a lack of transparency in the negotiating process plus a discussion paper on the agreement leaked in the spring of 2008 have caused alarm among consumer rights groups. Attempts to gain access to negotiating documents have so far proved unfruitful. The leaked text includes provisions for the criminalisation of intellectual property infringement, including "internet piracy... without motivation for financial gain" as well as provisions for IP enforcement by customs authorities.

Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a California non-profit focussing on the defence of civil liberties in the digital age, and Public Knowledge, a Washington, DC non-profit engaged in consumer advocacy on issues of intellectual property law and technology have filed suit against the USTR to try and obtain the information.

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