Last year, the customs detained more than 50 million suspected infringing goods
Strengthen the protection of the entire chain of intellectual property rights and zero tolerance for infringing goods
□ reporter Cai Yanhong
At the beginning of this year, Beijing Customs has added another "artifact" to intellectual property protection!
Recently, Chanel confirmed the rights of a shipment of goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights through the "Yunque" platform of Beijing Customs, and it only took 9 minutes to identify the "cottage" package.
"The'Yunque' platform can realize the'zero contact' and'zero omission' of intellectual property rights holders to quickly confirm their rights remotely; at the same time, the customs can release goods on the spot that have been identified and excluded from infringement by the right holders, greatly reducing the time for legal goods to clear customs." Beijing Cao Yongbin, director of the Customs Integrated Services Division, told a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily".
The Customs has always maintained a "zero tolerance" for infringing goods, and has continued to strengthen the protection of the entire chain of intellectual property rights.
In 2020, the General Administration of Customs will deploy national customs to intensively carry out special enforcement actions for intellectual property protection such as the "Long Teng Operation 2020", the "Blue Net Operation" of the delivery channel, and the "Net Net Operation" of export transshipment goods; continue to upgrade the protection of intellectual property rights in emerging businesses and crack down on them In the field of cross-border e-commerce infringement and illegal activities, strengthen the identification and investigation of high-risk anti-epidemic materials for infringement.
In 2020, the national customs detained a total of 56.18 million suspected infringing goods, a year-on-year increase of 20%.
Crack down on infringements
In recent years, with the development of the Internet economy and e-commerce, some criminals have turned their attention to infringement and counterfeiting to cross-border e-commerce platforms, which has brought new challenges to customs intellectual property protection.
On April 28, 2020, when the Chengdu Customs inspected a batch of cross-border direct mail export goods, it found that there were more than 200 packages declared by a company named "Watches". Random inspections revealed that they were a Rolex watch. There is the "ROLEX" brand logo, but the outer packaging is simple and the workmanship is rough, and there is a greater suspicion of infringement.
After unpacking inspection, there are 312 watches in total, involving many well-known brands such as Rolex and Vacheron Constantin.
Confirmed by the relevant right holders, these watches are all infringing products.
The reporter learned that, in response to the risk of infringement in mail, express mail, and cross-border e-commerce channels, the General Administration of Customs launched the "Blue Network Action" on March 15, 2020 to protect intellectual property rights in shipping channels.
During the operation, customs across the country detained 55,500 batches of infringing goods in inbound and outbound mail and express mail channels, a year-on-year increase of 17.16%, which effectively cracked down on infringements of "resolving into parts" and "ant moving".
At the same time as the crackdown, the national customs has strengthened policy announcements, supervised and urged delivery companies to standardize receipt and delivery inspections, and further deepened cooperation with e-commerce platforms.
For example, Hangzhou Customs has taken advantage of the developed cross-border e-commerce in Zhejiang to establish cooperative relations with a number of well-known cross-border e-commerce platforms across the country, jointly set up cooperation workstations for intellectual property protection, and used the cooperation mechanism of "information sharing, clue exchange, and joint crackdown" , Through "big data" and "cloud computing" to accurately locate counterfeit sellers, guide e-commerce platforms to actively carry out comprehensive governance, and build a pattern of co-governance against infringement in the Internet field.
Nanning Customs has established an information notification mechanism with cross-border e-commerce platforms to urge e-commerce platforms to remove 131 categories of suspected infringing goods and suspend business for 90 sellers.
Strengthen the investigation and punishment of infringement and epidemic prevention materials
Strictly controlling the quality of exported anti-epidemic materials is a key part of effectively supporting the international community in jointly responding to the global public crisis and maintaining the image of Made in China.
In accordance with the requirements for the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the General Administration of Customs has deployed national customs to strengthen the screening and investigation of high-risk anti-epidemic materials such as medical masks, protective clothing, thermometers, and ventilators.
In 2020, after Shanghai Dasheng Sanitary Products Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a key mask manufacturer in Shanghai, reported frequent infringements, Shanghai Customs guided the company to file for intellectual property rights, and carried out key investigations and intercepted 6 consecutive batches of infringements on the trademark rights of "Dasheng DS" The number of masks was 415,000, which enabled timely and effective containment of infringements and standardized the import and export order of the mask industry.
According to company feedback, the annual sales volume of masks reached 180 million, a sharp increase of nearly five times year-on-year, and the overseas market share nearly doubled from the previous year.
In addition, Shanghai Customs and the public security organs have made epidemic prevention medical supplies the focus of cooperation in execution, and successively transferred 5 cases of infringing masks.
In view of the concentrated characteristics of epidemic prevention material production enterprises in Jiangsu Shuyang, Siyang and other places, Nanjing Customs screened 52 key epidemic prevention material production enterprises to guide the export of professional products such as medical protective clothing, isolation gowns, and disposable medical gloves to declare compliance with intellectual property rights. Facilitating the smooth export of epidemic prevention materials has become a highlight of local foreign trade.
In order to support the prevention and control of the epidemic by countries around the world and effectively stop the cross-border movement of illegal and counterfeit medicines and medical supplies, the General Administration of Customs has organized national customs to actively participate in the international joint law enforcement action initiated by the World Customs Organization to stop the cross-border movement of illegal and counterfeit medicines and medical supplies.
During the operation, customs across the country strengthened control and inspections of anti-epidemic medical supplies and medicines with high risk of import and export infringement. A total of 5 cases of infringement of anti-epidemic medical supplies and medicines were detected, involving 1.6 million commodities, which effectively deterred infringement and illegal activities.
Optimize services to help enterprises' rights protection innovation
Customs across the country continued to optimize the content of services, improve assistance measures, and continuously improve the rights protection capabilities of export intellectual property superior enterprises.
In 2020, there will be 4,263 new intellectual property customs protection filing enterprises nationwide, of which 2,710 are domestic enterprises, accounting for 63.57%. The distribution areas of the enterprises have spread from the more developed southeast coastal provinces to the central and western regions.
Lanzhou Customs assisted Lanzhou Foci Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a "China time-honored brand" with a pharmaceutical history of 89 years, to apply for customs protection of intellectual property rights, and cooperated with Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other customs to carry out law enforcement cooperation, and for the first time detained and violated its "Ci" brand in the export link 7344 bottles of proprietary Chinese medicines.
The Harbin and Qingdao Customs have innovated in the free trade zone the way of guaranteeing the release of export goods in patent disputes, introducing a third party to provide counter-guarantee funds to the shipper to release the goods, so as to relieve the financial pressure of enterprises.
In response to the cluster of high-tech innovative enterprises in the customs area and the urgent need for patent protection, Shenzhen Customs continued to improve the patent protection model of "active protection, coordinated attack, and professional standards", and investigated and handled 11 patent infringement cases.
Local customs pay close attention to the latest trends in international intellectual property protection, have a deep understanding of the difficulties in business operations and rights protection, and encourage enterprises to actively respond to infringement disputes.
Beijing Customs and the Beijing Intellectual Property Overseas Rights Protection Alliance conducted training to popularize knowledge of customs protection of intellectual property rights to import and export enterprises, and help them understand the customs policies and rights protection measures of the target country.
Jiangmen Customs and Jiangmen Municipal Market Supervision Bureau launched the "Intellectual Property Overseas Escort" project to provide companies in key industries with guidance on the overseas layout of trademarks and industry patent early warning analysis services.
Cooperate closely to strengthen cross-regional law enforcement
Customs across the country further deepened the cross-customs combat law enforcement model. Last year, they carried out 254 times of inter-customs cooperation at various levels through "sharing clues," "co-analyzing case information," and "co-consulting strategies".
The customs of Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Nanchang, etc. have carried out joint law enforcement based on the potential risks of the drift of infringing goods in the postal channels through accurate mapping and analysis of relevant information such as the recipient and the sender.
Hefei Customs detained 3388 batches of infringing goods, an increase of 10 times over the previous year; Zhengzhou Customs detained 4031 batches of infringing goods, an increase of 69% year-on-year; Nanchang Customs detained 445 batches of infringing goods, an increase of 37 times over the previous year.
Customs across the country have closely coordinated administrative and judicial protection, and deepened cooperation with administrative and judicial agencies such as market supervision, food and drug supervision, tobacco monopoly departments, and courts.
Customs in Hohhot, Shenyang, Nanchang, Shantou, Haikou, Lanzhou and other local market supervision bureaus signed agreements to strengthen cooperation in intellectual property protection, and further coordinated and cooperated in law enforcement cooperation, research on major and complicated problems, notification and transfer of case clues, and corporate services.
Customs across the country also promptly disclosed information on customs intellectual property penalties in accordance with the law, and played a warning role of “one punishment, one deterrence”. In 2020, a total of 1,360 pieces of administrative punishment information were disclosed, and relevant government departments implemented joint punishments against untrustworthy and illegal enterprises in accordance with the law.