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REPUBLI C OF SERBIA MINIS TRY OF FINANCE CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION IPR Department. PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN CUSTOMS PROCEDURE ALEKSANDRA MANIĆ C USTOMS INSPECTOR. 01-03 April 200 9, Skopje. MINISTRY OF FINANCE. CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION. ENFORCEMENT SECTOR. IPR DEPARTMENT.
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REPUBLIC OF SERBIAMINISTRY OF FINANCECUSTOMS ADMINISTRATIONIPR Department PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN CUSTOMS PROCEDURE ALEKSANDRA MANIĆ CUSTOMS INSPECTOR 01-03April 2009, Skopje
MINISTRY OF FINANCE CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION ENFORCEMENT SECTOR IPR DEPARTMENT
IMPORT EXPORT TRANSIT of goods infringing any of the intellectual property rights is forbidden
SUSPENSION OF CUSTOMS PROCEDURE DETENTION OF GOODS AT REQUEST OF RIGHT HOLDER EX OFFICIO GENERAL REQUEST INDIVIDUAL REQUEST Ultimate measures taken by customs authority: CONTINUANCE OF CUSTOMS PROCEDURE DESTRUCTION OF GOODS
Detention of goods • In case of detention of goods, along with the Minutes on suspension of customs procedure, the Customs House shall provide other details relating to the procedure carried out before the competent court by the right-holder.
Where customs procedure has been suspended, the Customs House shall accordingly notify the IPR Department – Customs Administration, which shall take further measures with regard to the identification of goods, its detention and submission of data required for conducting the procedure before the competent court.
CUSTOMS PRACTISE • Since the beginning of implementation, by virtue of the mentioned regulations, Customs authorities have, at the request of intellectual property right-holders and ex officio, suspended the import, export or transit procedure for goods suspected of infringing some of the intellectual property rights, and retained it: - in 2004 – 24 cases - in 2005 - 373 cases - in 2006 - 1.042 cases - in 2007 – 1.602 cases - in 2008 – 856 cases During the said period, the Customs Administration passed approximately 300 decisions, in response to general requests of right-holders.
The most frequent types of goods infringing the intellectual property rights are: textile products, sports shoes and clothing, including accessories and equipment for mobile phones(facias, covers, keypad buttons, batteries, chargers, casesand such), hand watches, spare parts for cars, perfumery products, cups, batteries. • Countries of origin and departure of goods infringing the IPR predominantly are China, Turkey and Bulgaria.
“Baladini” Case • The device for gluing and sewing of trade name labels, press for gluing of markings, 20.000 items of side markings of NIKE brand for sports shoes, 20.000 NIKE brand labels for sports shoes’ soles and 2.090 pairs of sports labels with NIKE sign glued on, ready for sale – were detected in the unregistered warehouse in Vojvođanska Street, Belgrade. The value of identified goods was above 100.000 €.
Kraljevo Case • In May 2008,, the consignment of 10 tons of goods arrived at the Customs Service Airport “Nikola Tesla” as cargo. The examination has shown that it contained different textile and technical goods of high quality (Nokia, Nike, Boss, Prada, D & G...), intended to be brought out at Customs Point Brnjački Most • Further inspection has shown that there was an attempted smuggling of the goods, and the route indicated by the consignor, arouse suspicion that there has been a case of violation of intellectual property rights. • The Customs Service organized surveillance of the vehicle used for transportation, and the goods were detained when unloaded in the warehouse located in the house owned by a natural person, within Kraljevo region; 6 persons involved in the attempted smuggling on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, were detained. • The procedure involving these goods is under way.
DESTRUCTION OF GOODS • The final outcome of all the measures and activities taken in case of any suspected infringement of intellectual property rights, which fully eliminates the consequences of IPR violation, is the destruction of goods. • If, in accordance with Article 297 of the Regulation, the procedure instigated with the competent court, ends up with a decision to destroy the goods infringing the intellectual property rights, the customs authority shall order the destruction of goods under customs supervision or its elimination from regular trade in some other way (including its abandonment without remuneration, for humanitarian or similar purposes, recycling etc.) provided that: 1. the risk against future infringement of intellectual property rights is reduced as much as possible; 2. such act shall cause no damage to the intellectual property right-holder; 3. the intellectual property right-holder is allowed to propose the way of disposing of goods;
Pursuant to Article 297, Item 2 of the Regulation, elimination from regular trade flow referred to in Paragraph 1. hereof, shall not be: • 1. re-exportation of goods infringing the IPR in their unchanged form; • 2. simple elimination of trade marks illegally affixed on the counterfeit goods; • 3. placing of goods under some other customs procedure;
Pursuant to Article 298 of the Regulation, the customs authority may, ex officio, seize and order for the detained goods infringing any intellectual property right, to be destroyed under customs supervision, or to be eliminated from regular trade flow in some other way, in case where: • It is established, based on the decision of the competent authority, that such goodswere involved in the violation of intellectual property rights and 2. If the importer, consignee, exporter and/or owner of goods are notified about the suspension of customs procedure and the possibility that the goods infringing the intellectual property right are seized and destroyed, provided that they do not deny such seizure and destruction within 30 days as of the date when such notification has been delivered; 3.Where importer, exporting consignee and/or owner of goods, produce a written Statement confessing the infringement of intellectual property rights and that they will abandon the goods in favor of the state, the competent customs authority shall act in accordance with Paragraph 1. of this Article.
Public Utility Company Gradska čistoća (City Sanitation) – “WASTE” plant, has put into operation the tyre cutting machine, thanks to which, in December 2006, 15.240 pairs of counterfeit sports shoes bearing the trade marks of NIKE and DIESEL were destroyed. • In June 2007, another destruction of 10.044 pairs of NIKE sports shoes in the mentioned plant of the Public Utility Company “Gradska čistoća” was carried out. • In September 2008, we have destruction of cca. 15.000 pairs of fake sport shoes bearing marks NIKE.
In December 2008 another destruction in Public Utility company - 1.100 kg(457 pieces) of various counterfeit car parts bearing marks IVECO and BOSCH.
Under the customs supervision on 16-17. December 2008 in the Public Utility Company “Gradska čistoća” - "WASTE" plant we had the destruction of 21,111 NIKE counterfeit sport shoes. Concerning the capacity of machine and the amount of counterfeit products, the process of cutting was finished in two days.
At same location in March, 2009, a tramp machine was used for distruction of 2.400 kg of counterfeit bijouterie bearing the label PLAYBOY.
In the near future, there will also be the test - destruction of counterfeit textile goods kept under customs supervision, which have met the legal requirements for their destruction in the machine already used for the destruction of goods by cutting the sports shoes.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Contact: Ministry of Finance Customs Administration Bulevar Zorana Đinđića 155 11000 Belgrade E-mail: ipr-group@fcs.yu, ipr-cs@fcs.yu; Тel. /fax: +381 11 3194 164