Counterfeits Destroyed If Not Defended

by Katy Murcutt - Paralegal

26 April 2010, filed under Intellectual Property

Goods brought to the UK suspected of being counterfeit may be destroyed if the importer fails to make an objection under a new law put in place by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

In June 2009 HMRC’s rules on the importing of counterfeits changed to require the holder of the violated rights, most often trademarks rights, to independently initiate proceedings for each consignment of goods it wished to prevent from reaching the UK market trade. The result of this is counterfeit products being destroyed without the courts being involved if the importer has not opposed the importation.

The changes to the law regarding the importation of counterfeit goods were made by court ruling to ease the burden of expensive claims by rights holders. Now, rights holders will be able to write to the importer of the goods to disclose their claim that the goods being imported are suspected counterfeit goods, and if the importer simply fails to respond or agrees with the position of the rights holder, the goods can be destroyed at the rights holder’s expense.

The court will oversee some of the process once the rights holder has written to the owner to seek their consent. Consent will be implied if the owner fails to respond within a certain amount of time to the rights holder.

In most instances, the importer or owner ignores the requests from the rights holder in the hope that they will not bother to raise proceedings to destroy the consignment of suspected counterfeit goods.

It is believed that rights holders have welcomed these changes as the requirement to initiate court proceedings to prevent each consignment of fake goods from entering the UK is no longer required, saving time and expense.

Last years changes to the law were made as a result of a case at Belfast Magistrates Court where HMRC was found to not be fully compliant with EU law. The changes initiated in June last year have corrected the discrepancies between EU law and UK law.