Sources from the official website of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) on October 16, Director General of the Department of Policy and Legal Affairs of GACC Meng Yang answered questions from media on IPR border protection.

 

Since 1995 when Chinese Government authorized GACC to protect goods-related IPR in the import-export link through legislation, GACC's law enforcement operations have been approved by domestic and foreign right holders. Especially in recent years, GACC frequently won international citations for its IPR protection. This year, GACC was given the "Anti-Counterfeiting & Piracy Special Contribution Award" by the World Customs Organization (WCO).

 

Regarding the question of why GACC could win international citations and what efforts that GACC had made were approved by the WCO, Meng noted that in the past two years, the WCO frequently approved GACC's efforts in IP protection, especially on the occasion when the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC) was giving out its "Global Anti-Counterfeiting Governmental Organization Award" last year. Many countries competed for the award, but at last, the award went to Italian and Chinese customs. This is a case showing that IACC approved Chinese customs' works. This year, the WCO gave out its "Anti-Counterfeiting & Piracy Special Contribution Award" to China. This is the professional award of the WCO.

 

While giving out the governmental organization award last year, the IACC's remark for GACC was "open and transparent law enforcement with outstanding achievements". For example, GACC pays attention to the interaction with enterprises during its process of IP protection. It actively solicits suggestions from right holders and asks them to participate in discussions before making IPR protection regulations. The application of the governmental organization award was not filed by GACC, but recommended by right holders who believed GACC had done a good job in this regard. This year, GACC won the "Anti-Counterfeiting & Piracy Special Contribution Award," making China one of the five winners out of more than 100 WCO members. WCO believed that GACC had made great efforts in cracking down on counterfeits and could timely publicize related information. "Actually, GACC had done a lot of works before it achieved so outstanding results and this is the reason why we are approved by IACC and WCO. We have the strength and we are inspired," said Meng.

 

While asked what measures GACC had taken to protect IPR during the more than 10 years after 1995, Meng stated that after GACC shouldered the responsibility of IPR protection, the first work it did was to establish and improve its management system. In 2000 when Chinese Customs Law was modified, IPR protection is one of the important content. After China accessed to the WTO, it again modified Intellectual Property Ordinance. Meanwhile, it made a series of customs regulations and proclamations under laws and statutes, such as confirming the procedures of IP record filing, general guarantee and law enforcement. Not long ago, GACC also made strict stipulation on the confiscation and handling of infringement goods and materials.

 

Up to now, Chinese customs IPR protection system consisting three levels of laws, administrative statutes and regulations has been established completely. Meanwhile, GACC has done a lot of work in protecting the logos of Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Exposition at exit and entry link.

 

The second work after establishing the legal system was to set up law enforcement system, which includes a convenient and unified record filing system of customs IPR protection. The system requires right holders registering their rights that need protection at customs in advance so that Chinese customs can learn more about the specific cases to increase their work efficiency. From October 1995 when the record filing system was established to June 2007, more than 11,000 records were filed at GACC. The system greatly facilitates Chinese customs' work in actively finding out infringement goods. Of the infringement cases handled by Chinese customs, 90 percent were found out actively according to the records.

 

Currently, China's customs IPR protection has formed a three-level IP protection and law enforcement mechanism of the general administration of customs, customs directly under the GACC and port customs houses. It ahs also established a high-quality IPR protection team. From 1994 to 2006, Chinese customs nationwide totally dealt with more than 8,000 cases of goods infringement, worth more than 1 billion yuan. During the period after China entered the WTO, the number of IPR infringement cases handled by Chinese customs increased by 30 percent annually.

 

Since customs law enforcement is mainly operated at borders, taking into consideration the international factors, the third works GACC did was to continuously improve the international cooperation mechanism of IP law enforcement. Counterfeiting and piracy are internationalized problems and only through strengthening international law enforcement cooperation can China restrain the overflow of IPR infringement. China has signed administrative assistance agreements with many countries and regions, most of which consists of the content of IP law enforcement cooperation. Meanwhile, Chinese customs also cooperate with domestic right holders, guilds and other law enforcement department to jointly crack down on IP infringements.

 

Furthermore, Meng pointed out the characteristics of Chinese customs IPR protection compared with that of other countries. He noted that from the angle of legal system, China's customs IPR protection is different from that of other countries in the following two aspects:

 

First, China conducts two-way protection of import and export. Most countries only investigate IPR infringements in import link while ignoring that of export link. Chinese customs check carefully both import and export links. Currently, most IPR infringement cases handled by Chinese customs were discovered in export link. China's practice of protecting IPR in export link indicates China is a responsible power in global competition and Chinese customs are, as well, shouldering their respective responsibilities.

 

Second, Chinese customs IP protection has a wide coverage, including patent right, trademark right, copyright, Olympic and World Exposition logos. "Compared with foreign customs system, we are comparatively in higher level," said Meng.

 

Meng also pointed out the difficulties currently facing Chinese customs IPR protection. Compared with other traditional functions of customs, IPR protection is a new area to them. Their difficulties in this area mainly include: How to improve Chinese customs' law enforcement capacity of actively investigating infringement goods; how to more effectively prevent infringement goods from going abroad under the precondition of not influencing the efficiency of going through customs; and how to strengthen legal education on customs IPR protection and create sound law enforcement atmosphere. While improving customs staff's law enforcement awareness and capacity, Chinese customs also attach great importance to the education to consignors, consignees and right holders. Chinese customs' efforts in law publicity mean to inform the owners of cargo that their practice of producing "high-quality counterfeits" is also illegal. In law enforcement actions, many right holders cannot persist to their stance when they see they can get profit from counterfeits. In many cases, right holders immediately adopted a conciliatory attitude to counterfeit producers when they see the counterfeits were produced in high quality. This phenomenon should be changed through strengthening education.

 

In the future, Chinese customs will further strengthen its IP law enforcement and actively participate in international and domestic cooperation in law enforcement, so as to make joint efforts in cracking down on right infringement activities.

 

(http://www.customs.gov.cn)

2007-10-19

2007-10-19