IPR Groups Largely Supportive of CBP's Proposal for Info Sharing
The American Intellectual Property Law Association, the American Bar Association IP law section and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all offered general support in comments on CBP's proposal to allow for the disclosure of information to trademark holders on shipments that have been voluntarily abandoned (see 1910150034). The AIPLA and the Chamber suggested only some small tweaks are necessary, including a change from “may" to "will" where the proposal says that "CBP may disclose to the owner the following comprehensive importation information." Comments were due on Nov. 15.
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Among the more critical comments were those from the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, which complained that CBP's proposal isn't strong enough. The group said CBP was mistaken about how it views the Trade Secrets Act as prohibiting certain disclosure. "CBP, in fact, has an affirmative duty to provide that information to rights-holders, and to allow the rights-holder to examine samples of the goods in question," it said. "Such disclosure and provision of samples is neither discretionary, nor conditioned upon a determination by CBP that such disclosure is necessary to further its own IPR enforcement efforts." The Entertainment Software Association also said that CBP's disclosure responsibility shouldn't be discretionary.
The Semiconductor Industry Association suggested that CBP include more information that may be disclosed to a trademark holder. Specifically, it said that "CBP should be authorized to share the reason why the suspected counterfeit was detained by CBP in the first place, and other information they have uncovered during their inspection of the item, assuming the disclosure of such additional information would not impede an ongoing investigation."