News Item

Simplified UK Customs Regulations on counterfeit goods ease brand owners’ burden

18 February 2010

As we reported in June 2009, changes to the way that HM Revenue and Customs administered the regime for dealing with counterfeit goods placed a heavy burden on brand owners to commence court proceedings against owners of counterfeit goods. Further changes to the regime due to come into effect on 10 March 2010 will ease the burden on brand owners.

Currently, for suspected goods to be held by Customs for more than the initial 10-day seizure period, brand owners have to either initiate court proceedings to determine if the goods are counterfeit or reach an agreement with the owner of the goods to abandon the goods. Where the brand owner is able to reach such an agreement with the owner of the goods then the abandoned goods will be destroyed.

The difficulty for brand owners under the current regime is that in many cases the owner of the goods either has not provided genuine contact details, and so is not contactable, or they simply do not respond to approaches from the brand owners. As a result, brand owners have to start legal proceedings in all cases where agreement can not be reached or risk having the goods released.

Under the new changes to the regime a “simplified procedure” will be introduced. This will allow Customs officers to destroy goods suspected of being counterfeit at the request of the brand owner where the owner of the goods cannot be traced or they fail to provide any response when offered the opportunity to agree or object to the abandonment of the goods. As is the case under the current regime, the destruction of goods under the simplified procedure will be at the expense and under the responsibility of the brand owner.

The simplified procedure should remove the need for legal proceedings to be issued in many cases of counterfeit goods detained by Customs.

For more information, contact your usual Marks & Clerk solicitor or attorney, or Kirsten Gilbert at kgilbert@marks-clerk.com.