Antigua and Barbuda Governor General Dame Louise Lake-Tack said the Baldwin Spencer administration will change copyright legislation this year in a new strategy to end its internet gaming dispute with the U.S.
Lake-Tack said Antigua’s and Barbuda’s gaming industry has been ruined by U.S. laws prohibiting online gaming sites from dealing with U.S. customers and has been unhappy with a lack of progress in talks with the U.S. on the issue.
“Accordingly, necessary arrangements would be made to the Copyright Act, the Trademark Act and the Patents Act to invoke the World Trade Organization approved sanction by removing any protection which US intellectual property may have in Antigua and Barbuda,” she said.
Antigua and Barbuda have accused the U.S. of breaching its commitments to members of the WTO under the General Agreement on Trade in Services by enacting laws that prevented foreign-based operators from offering gambling and betting services to its citizens.
In 2005, the WTO ruled that the U.S. had violated international trade agreements. Antigua claimed that it lost $3.4 billion a year due to the US action, but the WTO awarded the island $21 million.
In its ruling, the WTO also allowed Antigua and Barbuda to suspend certain concessions and obligations it has under international law to the United States in respect of intellectual property rights.
