In advance of a public briefing on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement last week, Intel and other stakeholders sent a letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative requesting that language from a key domestic law be included in the forthcoming international pact. Specifically, they asked the USTR to be sure that any language referring to Internet service providers include provisions agreed upon under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The legislation gives providers "safe harbor" from liabilities for copyright infringement being committed across their networks.

NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson spoke with Jim Burger, intellectual property attorney with Intel, about the letter and other issues surrounding the controversial agreement being negotiated in secret. He shared his thoughts on the threat the pact could possess if it doesn't include language from the U.S. copyright law, as well as standards for secondary liability that have been defined in U.S. courts.

Read edited excerpts from the interview here.