We have previously written about the importance of the annual Customs petition and, for the new readers, wanted to shortly again sum up the important points:
1. Longer period to respond
Since the Customs has an ex officio duty to stop all goods that may be infringing on IP rights, a suspicious shipment should be stopped in any case - what follows, however is different for the trade mark owners with ACS petition, as it provides them with a longer period (usually 10 working days) to decide on the next steps.
This can be particularly helpful in cases of different national holidays, travel and time differences.
2. More up-to-date information provided to the local Customs
ACS petition itself asks to provide information about place and state of manufacture, information on traders and distribution routes as well as value of the goods.
Additionally, it enables the trade mark owner to share photos and guidelines on c product - this can be a deciding factor for the men and women at the state lines, when identifying quickly passing shipments.
3. No unnecessary delays of the original goods at Custom points
Even with all the precautions, sometimes genuine goods are seized - this is successfully avoided by supplying the local Customs with the list of authorized importers and usual points of entry into the country.
Although, the law prescribes short time frames for taking action against seized shipments, in reality it can take a long time from the seizure to notification to the local representative of the trade mark owner.
Additionally, ACS petitions inform the Customs about local attorneys of the trade mark owner, which is especially important when they refer to IR marks.
Regularly filing an ACS petition and renewing it each 12/24 months , makes the whole process easy for the trade mark owner, their supply chain and local agents.
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Additional information
Our office offers a flat fee which includes preparing and filing the annual Customs surveillance petition, printing of the booklet (if provided) and providing certificates on validity of IP rights from the local IPO.
Note that the surveillance petition is filed per OWNER, which means it can refer to multiple applications/ registrations by the same owner at the same time.
Contact us today to learn more.
And if you want to take it a step further – check out our 360 program, which combines the Customs surveillance petition with Communal inspection petition, which conducts inspections in regards to the goods already in the market place.
This provides the IP owner with 360 degree overview of the situation and includes our recommendation for further actions once the initial 12 month period ends.
