For many of us, interactions with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) usually take place at an airport upon return from an international vacation or work trip. As we present our passport, or watch one of the CBP’s K-9 crew sniff bags for illicit foodstuffs or produce, we may not be thinking about the full range of CBP’s activities. Hopefully, that will change based on this two-part written interview (with 5 answered questions rather than the traditional 3 for this series) that I was lucky enough to conduct with Edward Moriarty, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Assistant Port Director for Trade Enforcement, Area Port of Philadelphia. As you will see below, he and his CBP colleagues have a major role to play in policing IP infringement by foreign-sourced products. As usual, I have added some brief commentary to the answers below, but have otherwise presented his answers as he provided them.
Immediately below are the first two of my written questions and Assistant Port Director Moriarty’s answers:
1) CBP plays an underrated role in helping stem the tide of counterfeit products being imported into the USA. What can be done to further raise awareness of CBP’s important work in this area?
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Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforces Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), most visibly by seizing products that infringe IPR such as trademarks, copyrights, and patents. The theft of intellectual property and trade in fake goods threaten America’s economic vitality and national security, and the American people’s health and safety. Trade in these illicit goods funds criminal activities and organized crime.
Customs and Border Protection’s intellectual property rights enforcement is well-known among trademark holders, especially with those who work with CBP to protect their intellectual property against counterfeiters. CBP continues to raise awareness among consumers of the health and safety threats posed by substandard counterfeit goods through multi-agency awareness campaigns. One example is CBP’s “Truth Behind Counterfeits” campaign. The campaign ran ads at six major U.S. airports during the busy summer travel period and placed on travel websites such as TripAdvisor.com. The campaign reached approximately 97 million people. The goal was to inform international travelers about the legal, economic, and public health and safety implications of acquiring intellectual property-infringing consumer goods. The ads alerted travelers that purchasing counterfeit goods supports criminal activity, and it raised awareness about the importance of shopping from reputable sources. Additionally, CBP partners with Homeland Security Investigations, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and other agencies to staff display tables at major airports during the summer and winter holiday travel seasons to engage directly with travelers.
GK: Education of the consumer public is an important step toward changing consumer behavior. Targeting travelers with CBP’s anti-counterfeiting campaign makes good sense, especially given the tendency some travelers have to acquire counterfeit products overseas where they can proliferate.
2) As the seizure of Bryce Harper counterfeit jerseys shows, counterfeiters continue to target sports and other fashion brands by producing fake copies quickly. How does CBP work with sports leagues and brands to help prevent these products from reaching our shores?
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CBP’s IPR strategy is multi-layered and includes: seizing fake and dangerous goods at our borders, extending the reach of border enforcement through audits of importers of IPR infringed goods, cooperation internationally with our trading partners, and partnering with industry and other government agencies to enhance and coordinate these efforts.
Sports leagues, designer brand companies, and other intellectual property rights holders may voluntarily record their trademarks and copyrights with Customs and Border Protection’s web-based tool, e-Recordation. CBP offices throughout the U.S. can then compare recordation data against potentially counterfeit consumer goods that we encounter. CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE) are our agency’s trade experts, and will work with trademark holders to determine a suspect shipment’s authenticity. All this occurs at U.S. Ports of Entry. CBP also uses seizures as opportunities to work with willing sports leagues, designer brands and other trademark holders to jointly announce these seizures, the dangers of purchasing substandard consumer goods, and the consequences of selling and purchasing counterfeit or pirated goods.
CBP’s online trade violation reporting system, e-Allegations, makes it easier for the private sector to notify CBP of possible intellectual property rights and other trade violations.
Additionally, CBP works with our foreign partners to help identify and intercept counterfeit consumer goods before they can be shipped to the United States.
GK: What shines through is the public-private cooperation that is necessary to stem the tide of counterfeit products from reaching our shores. IP owners often realize that they need the assistance of government resources, such as those offered by CBP, to truly make sure that their brands and other IP are as well-protected as possible. As such, it behooves us as IP lawyers to at least familiarize ourselves with the full range of CBP’s offerings, so that we can counsel our clients appropriately when they become the target for counterfeiters.
We will continue with the answers to our other questions next week.
Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at [email protected] or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.
Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.