SOURCE: Reuters

Continued from page 1

Mixed Reactions

The White House welcomed the low amount of the award, and noted it was negotiating with Antigua and other countries on compensation following a decision formally to remove gambling from the services it has opened up.

"The United States is pleased that the figure arrived at by the arbitrator is over 100 times lower than Antigua's claim," said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

But he urged Antigua not to use its sanctions award to lift copyright on intellectual property rights (IPR), pending a final settlement of the dispute.

That "would establish a harmful precedent for a WTO Member to affirmatively authorize what would otherwise be considered acts of piracy, counterfeiting or other forms of IPR infringement," he said.

Mark Mendel, the lawyer who led the case for Antigua, welcomed the right to cross-retaliate by suspending the intellectual property rights of U.S. business interests.

"That has only been done once before and is, I believe, a very potent weapon," he said in a statement.

He criticized the way the panel had arrived at the figure for damages, but noted the award was open-ended.

"$21 million a year in intellectual property rights suspension going forward indefinitely is not such a bad asset to have," he said.

Page 1, 2, 3