Protection at the customs

Customs IPR protection measures are aimed at ensuring effective enforcement of border protection measures in order to protect the internal market from import of counterfeit and pirated goods, the marketing of which causes damages to the right holders and sets the grounds for unfair competition, and represents a threat to economic security of the country and health of the local consumer.

The steps of IPR border enforcement measures mechanism are as follows:

• Initiation of the procedure – the right holder submits for consideration the application for intervention to the Customs;
• Acceptance of the application for intervention and setting the date for intervention. Based on the accepted request for intervention, the Customs maintains a “Register of intellectual property objects subject to border protective measures”;
• Enforcement of protection measuresby detention of goods suspected of infringing an intellectual property right and/or suspension of the clearance procedure with notification of the right holder and the declarant/consignee of goods in order to initiate judicial proceedings. If the rights holder does not bring action within the envisaged time-limit, the customs authority orders the release of goods and/or release to free circulation, provided that other legal provisions are observed;
• Enforcement of measures against goods which were proved to infringe an intellectual property right(destruction, exclusion from trade flows, handover of goods to other public institutions (free of charge), other measures under the law).

INTELSTART services include:

• Preparing and filing an application for inclusion of a trademark or any IP object into the Register of intellectual property objects subject to border protective measures;
• Representation in administrative authorities and courts;
• Conducting counterfeit analysis of goods;
• Conducting investigations to obtain evidence of infringement;
• Preparing and submitting of warning letters to infringers.