U.S. Customs and Border Protection April 24, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document amends, on an interim basis, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations pertaining to importations of merchandise bearing recorded trademarks or recorded trade names. The interim amendments, effective upon publication in the Federal Register, allow CBP, subject to limitations, to disclose to an intellectual property right holder information appearing on merchandise or its retail packaging that may comprise information otherwise protected by the Trade Secrets Act, for the purpose of assisting CBP in determining whether the merchandise bears a counterfeit mark. Such information will be provided to the right holder in the form of photographs or a sample of the goods and/or their retail packaging in their condition as presented to CBP for examination and alphanumeric codes appearing on the goods. The information will include, but not be limited to, serial numbers, universal product codes, and stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers appearing on the imported merchandise and its retail packaging, whether in alphanumeric or other formats. These changes provide a pre-seizure procedure for disclosing information about imported merchandise suspected of bearing a counterfeit mark for the limited purpose of obtaining the right holder's assistance in determining whether the mark is counterfeit or not.