U.S.–EU Publish Joint Brochure, Web Toolkit for Trademark, Copyright Owners

(CBP)

To promote strong and effective border enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and customs officials from the European Union have jointly developed a brochure and Web toolkit to assist trademark and copyright owners in preparing information to help U.S. and EU customs agencies determine whether goods are counterfeit or pirated.

Customs officials from the U.S. and EU announced joint publication of these two documents at a U.S.-EU IPR working group meeting held last week at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The meeting attendees included representatives from U.S. and European industry and trade associations, and officials from the U.S. government including the United States Trade Representative, Department of Commerce, Department of State, Library of Congress Copyright Office, CBP and EU officials from the Directorate Generals of Trade, Enterprise, and the Customs Union.

The U.S.-EU brochure titled “Protecting Intellectual Property Rights at Our Borders” is a brochure of basic information for trademark and copyright owners on working with customs officials in the U.S. and the EU. It provides them with information on how to protect themselves from the serious global problem of counterfeiting and piracy. Suggested protection includes the registration and recording of IPR, product identification training guides, and sharing of intelligence on suspect shipments.

The joint customs Web toolkit provides a single set of guidelines for trademark and copyright owners to design web-based product to determine whether goods are counterfeit or pirated. These toolkits provide information to customs officials to assist them in determining whether suspect shipments are counterfeit or pirated.

Other joint projects include Operation Infrastructure, the first joint IPR border enforcement operation undertaken by U.S. and EU customs authorities. The operation fulfilled a key deliverable of the U.S.-EU IPR Action Strategy. Targeting semiconductors and network hardware, the operation ran from November 26, 2007 through December 14, 2007, and resulted in the seizures of more than 360,000 counterfeit integrated circuits and computer network components bearing more than 40 different companies’ trademarks.

Officials are continuing discussions on future joint operations. For more information visit the CBP website