In an effort to fight what President Barak Obama’s office has
described as a counterfeit pandemic, they have given full support to
the 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement
being coordinated by the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
(IPEC). This effort brings together the federal departments of
- Agriculture (USDA);
- Commerce (DOC);
- Health and Human Services (HHS);
- Homeland Security (DHS);
- Justice (DOJ);
- State (DOS);
- the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR); and
- the U.S. Copyright Office.
The
sharing of these departments’ resources and programs means a concerted
effort to combat the counterfeit issues that have been witnessed with
increasing frequency. Intellectual property (IP) theft is a problem
that is hurting several industries such as music, retail,
pharmaceutical, and electronics to name a few.
IPEC’s plan outlines 33 enforcement strategies divided into 6 separate categories:
1. to lead by example;
2. to increase transparency;
3. to ensure efficiency and coordination;
4. to enforce IP rights internationally;
5. to secure supply chain; and
6. to improve data and information collection
How
does this affect the broker and distributor? The US crack down on the
import of counterfeits will place greater emphasis on everyone doing
their part to remove counterfeits from the supply chain. To this end,
a main point to take note of is the ‘Penalty Relief for Voluntary
Disclosure’.
“In cases where importers or other parties discover that they have acquired counterfeit or pirated prod-
ucts
without their knowledge, there is no existing process by which the
importers can voluntarily disclose violations to CBP without being
subject to seizures and other enforcement actions In order to discover
counterfeit goods, encourage voluntary disclosure and strengthen
cooperation between industry and enforcement entities, the U S
Government will take action to
allow importers and others involved in the importation of infringing
goods to receive relief from civil enforcement action as appropriate
when they voluntarily disclose the violation to CBP prior to the
beginning of an investigation. If a valid disclosure is made,
the infringing goods in the disclosing party’s possession or control
would be destroyed under CBP’s supervision and the disclosing party
would bear the costs of destruction. ”
The CBP’s web site will help to locate your company’s nearest port of entry to report cases of counterfeit and pirated products.
In addition, the United States’ involvement in the final draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
(ACTA) gives the United States another tool to combat the
counterfeiters on an international level. The final draft has been
agreed upon by Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus,
the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Republic of
Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United
Mexican States, the United States, and the European Union.
