Enhance measures to identify infringing trademarks in APEC

Enterprise instructed consumers the signs for distinguishing authentic products and counterfeit goods. Photo: Nguyễn Huế

The workshop focused on the main contents including: Impact of Trademark infringement on Brand Owners, consumers and economies; Role of Customs in IP border enforcement; Trademark offices: Making examination decisions about confusingly similar trademarks; Customs agencies: Making determinations between confusingly similar trademarks with counterfeits; Building effective relationships between Customs, trademark offices and private sector; Current development, initiatives and trends.

Ms. Saori Nojima, Japan Operation Manager & Program manager for South Asia WCO Asia Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building shared the efforts of WCO in IPR Border Enforcement. Organised workshop for Practice sharing among WCO members in regional and counterfeiting and piracy meeting. Tailor-made support for WCO members via national workshops. Customs joint enforcement operation like targeted goods in health and safety related goods (pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, cosmetics, pesticides, machines and vehicle, games and toys). In particular, WCO Asia Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB/AP) plays a key role in capacity building activities.

According to illicit trade report in 2015 of WCO, over 188,990 million IPR infringing items reported. The challenges are set out from legal framework and procedures, cooperation with right holders, product identification which take times for detention and balance of trade facilitation and enforcement action, difficulty in finding out right holder’s contact points, cooperation with other government organizations and other issues related to internal issues at Customs.

She suggested that Customs should take forward way in cooperation with other governments through training activities, IPR knowledge support, information exchange, raise public awareness. In addition, Customs should collaborate with right holders via dialogue, identification training, propagandize in order to raise public awareness. In particular, Customs of economies members should develop and maintain their strategy, organization, legal framework, procedures, IT systems as well as human resource development. Also, she stressed that international cooperation is essential to strengthen enforcement for talking with trademark infringement.

Vietnam Customs also contributed to the workshop when presented about determination between confusingly similar trademarks with counterfeits. The determination has been normally made by the national office of intellectual property. There are 2 main basic grounds to make determination included: compare main features of the signal request for trademark establishment with the control trademark; compare goods/services bearing the signal requested for trademark establishment with those bearing the control trademark. However, there is a number of existing effect factors leading to the confusion regarding trademark. Also, it is impossible to set up a standard set of criteria to consider for determination making.

Therefore, there are crucial factors for the effectiveness of customs intellectual property enforcement in Vietnam. By enhancing capabilities of Customs officials; Information effectively gathered, processed and exchange; Using technical support provided; promoting internal & external cooperation; Boosting up training and propaganda for knowledge enriching as well as awareness raising. In addition, a key recommendation for Vietnam Customs for effective and efficient intellectual property border enforcement have been suggested. Through further promote the Customs intellectual property database system and enhance internal and external collaboration focusing on 3 pillars of cooperation as recommended by the WCO.

Ms. Charisma Hampton, Attorney Advisor – Enforcement Team Office of Policy and International Affairs United States Patent and Trademark Office, stressed that technology is an effective tool to combat counterfeiting. Many counterfeit detecting technologies are kept the secret to prevent circumvention but there are many known methods of detecting counterfeit goods that manufacturers, supply chains, customs officials and consumers can use to limit counterfeiting. For example, manufacturers could make Bar codes or QR codes, color shifting inks and guilloches,…