Destruction of goods seized by Customs

This part of the Empty Quarter has seen two worrying trends emerging in every day practice across the region flowing from the issue of what happens to goods seized by Customs.

The first is that Customs allow the importer to export the goods outside the country of detention or, if seized in a member state of the GCC, to allow them to be exported outside the GCC. The reasoning seems to be that if the goods are not in the country/region then they are no longer a problem. This is plainly not the case. In one recent example dangerous, explosive, counterfeit product was allowed to be exported to a third country. This simply puts other people at risk, rather than removing the risk completely.

The second is that Customs simply store the goods with no process for destruction. Customs are doing a great job of detaining goods. The processes for the destruction simply have not been worked out.

The root causes of both of these issues are that neither the facilities to destroy or recycle the goods nor the enforcement mechanisms to hold the consignee liable for the cost of destruction/recycling either exist or are readily available.

Seizure of counterfeit products without permanently removing them from circulation is no real seizure at all. Rights holders will simply, in time, stop working with Customs to seize counterfeit products. It will be consumers who are ultimately harmed.

Good work by the Dubai Department of Economic Development

This part of the Empty Quarter really likes good news and while practice in the region can be frustrating and require significant patience there are days when a piece of good news arrives to lighten the day. This item of good news comes from this part of the Empty Quarter’s own practice.

The Dubai Department of Economic Development have long taken action in the markets in Dubai. The inspectors have a good knowledge of the traders and of many products. In general, they will take action in response to a complaint being filed. Occasionally, they will take action proactively. In one recent example, the DDED proactive raided 4 traders, seizing about 200 counterfeit items in total. The DDED levied fines totalling nearly Dhs50,000 against the 4 traders – that is over US$3,000 per trader or US$65 per item.

Good news for the rights holder concerned and for consumers.  Well done to the Dubai Department of Economic Development.

Qatar Customs recordals

With thanks to good friends Saba & Co and their monthly bulletins for February and March 2012 we have news of IPR Border Measures in Qatar.

Law No. 17 of 2011 on Intellectual Property Rights Border Measures came in to force on publication in the Official Gazette No. 12 of January 2012. The report from Saba describes provisions with which practitioners will be familiar – rights holders can record information with Customs, Customs can stop counterfeits on sufficient evidence, decide what to do with the goods, and the decisions of Customs can be appealed to the Court. Action against goods in transit, goods coming from a country with whom there is a Customs union, and parallel imports is specifically excluded.

This part of the Empty Quarter likes Customs recordals when there is a clear process for recordal, detention, punishment and destruction. Detentions by Customs are a significant deterrent to traders in counterfeit product.

Syria, sanctions and Executive Orders

For a few weeks in February it looked like any US business would have considerable difficulty in undertaking any Intellectual Property work in Syria and any business having instructed IP work in Syria since August 2011 may have been in violation of an Executive Order issued by President Obama.

In February, the US firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP produced a very useful Alert, on the effect of Executive Order 13582 issued on 17 August 2011 strengthening US sanctions against Syria. The Executive Order prohibits US persons and entities from engaging in (i) receipt of goods or services from the government of Syria; (ii) payment of funds to the government of Syria; and (iii) The approval or facilitation by a US person of a transaction by a foreign person where the transaction would be prohibited under the Executive Order if performed by a US person (which catches US persons instructing agents elsewhere to manage the IP on their behalf).

The US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had issued a series of General Licenses allowing certain activities that would be otherwise prohibited but none of them had extended to IP. OFAC had indicated that a "specific license" must be obtained before engaging in IP transactions including filing, maintaining or renewing IP applications or registrations.

Fortunately, on 22 February 2012, General License No 15 was issued by OFAC authorising certain acts related to patents, trade marks and copyright.

This part of the Empty Quarter likes certainty and feels that General License No. 15 restores at least partial certainty to the ability of US persons and entities to continue to manage their IP in Syria. There is an outstanding question about domain names (which coincides with the Syrian domain name registry implementing new regulations, about which more anon). Of course, the ideal outcome is that the normal order of things is restored and no sanctions, Executive Orders or General Licenses are needed at all.

UAE Trade Mark Office implements IPAS system

A report from good friends Rouse tells us of disruption at the UAE Trade Mark Office due to implementation of a new internal system.

In summary the UAE TMO has implemented the WIPO Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS) (details here) to replace the former bespoke system. The IPAS system is expected to result in more efficient processes within the Trade Mark Office as well as introducing greater standardisation and new capabilities. Among the new capabilities will be phonetic searches and classification of devices (based on Vienna Classifications). In time it is expected that e-services will be enabled including online filing, viewing records on online, and so on. The switch over from the old system to the new took place over a long weekend at the beginning of March. There are ongoing service delays at the Trade Mark Office as officials are changing working practices to comply with the process requirements of the new system. Currently trade mark searches are expected to take 7 working days. All agents are limited to undertaking only 5 of each transaction type per day while the new system is being settled in. Priority is being given to applications claiming priority and other deadlines. The Trade Mark Office expects service levels to return to normal quickly.

The part of the Empty Quarter welcomes new and improved systems and believes that rights holders can be tolerant of delays due to implementation particularly when those delays herald the arrival of improved levels of service to those rights holders. Agents across the UAE are having to adapt quickly to new practices, not to mention new forms and report formats. It may be small thing but this part of the Empty Quarter is deeply relieved to see that the IPAS system sends out documents in .pdf format, rather than the obscure .snp format used until only the end of last month.

(No more) Trade mark reservation in South Sudan

With thanks to our friends at SMAS for the timely update we can report that the Procedure for the reservation of trade marks announced here has been suspended. In the normal course this would be a matter of some concern. However, in this case SMAS have been informed by the Commercial Registrar’s office that the suspension is due to the Trade mark Bill for South Sudan being in the final stages of legislation.

This part of the Empty Quarter likes certainty and looks forward to reporting further news on the new legislation when news is available. Will marks from the former (whole) Sudan transfer to the new South Sudan Registry? What about Paris? Madrid (Agreement or Protocol)? Fees? Will there be a domain like sunrise period? So many questions, so much advice to be given. And then there are questions for patents, designs and copyright!

Restarting

As I have quickly discovered the hardest part of this blogging game is not what to write but finding the time to write it. Along comes a bit of travel and a lot of work and the blogging is very quickly in the non-urgent, non-important quadrant. What is the lesson to learn? Perhaps that the rest of the world is simply too busy and that more time should be spent in the tranquil thoughtful space that is the Empty Quarter.