The Customs Seized 129 Import Trademark Infringements from January to September.

From January to September 2004, the customs had seized 129 import trademark infringement cases, which far outnumbered the 68 cases from last year. There were 165 cases of export trademark declaration inconsistency.

 

Directorate General of Customs, the Ministry of Finance indicated, in convenience to carry out the Intellectual Property Right Border Protection Procedures, the said directorate had announced “The Customs Operate in Coordination of Trademark Rights and Copyrights Protection Principles” in June, 2003. They had furthermore announced “The Customs Seized Trademark Infringing Goods Practice Methods” in September 2004 based on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) “Trade-Related Intellectual Property Right Pact” and Article 68 of the Trademark Law of our country to protect the trademark holders’ rights.

 

According to the Trademark Law, a report-protect method was used on the trademark holders. The trademark holders may report any importing or exporting of trademark infringing goods to the Directorate General of Customs with a written explanation of facts of infringement as well as papers sufficient to prove their trademark rights. After the Customs received a report and the content of goods was consistent to the report, the directorate would inform the reporter to provide a security deposit or guarantee so as to apply for seizure of the right-infringing goods. However, the party of seized goods may also provide a doubled amount of the security deposit to apply for abrogation of the seizure. (2004.11)

CYJ/CHT