ICC Keynote Focuses on CBP’s Partnerships to Combat Counterfeit Product Importation

(CBP)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of International Trade Assistant Commissioner Daniel Baldwin gave a keynote address today [Thursday] at the International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property Crime Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada highlighting how partnerships are an integral part of CBP’s strategy to combat the illegal importation of counterfeit goods.

“All of us face a common threat from the international trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods, Assistant Commissioner Baldwin told the group. “It is essential that we work in partnership to identify and disrupt the international distribution networks of these goods.”

Baldwin’s keynote address highlighted CBP’s intellectual property rights enforcement work emphasizing CBP’s partnerships with industry, trading partners and other U.S. government agencies to detect and seize counterfeit goods.

CBP continues to seize a wide range of counterfeit goods with an increasing focus on products that pose a safety threat and could harm consumers.

“At one time, we viewed fake goods primarily as a commercial threat to our economies. We now understand that the trade in fakes also presents equally serious threats to our national security and consumer safety,” said Baldwin.

CBP seizures of counterfeit and pirated goods have risen dramatically. In fiscal year 2007 CBP made 13,657 IPR seizures with a domestic value – the value of fake goods – of more than $196 million, an increase of 27% by value over the previous year. In the last five years, CBP seizures of IPR infringing products has risen about 110%.

The conference was hosted by INTERPOL and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in partnership with Underwriters Laboratories. It focused on law enforcement’s role in IPR enforcement, with the theme of “Working in Partnership Against a Common Threat.”