No Images? Click here 1- Possibility to get samples as part as a custom retention procedure The EU Regulation 608/2013 and the French IP code give to the right owner the opportunity to ask Customs, during the time of the suspension of release proceeding, to inspect the goods and to obtain representative samples for analysis. Consequently, the right owner may request, at his own expense, the sending of a sample by the Customs authorities. All that is needed is to edit via Internet a transport label, then to send it by email to the Customs services in charge which will then print it and affix it on the parcel which will be sent directly to the right owner. The right owner has to determine the transport arrangements to make sure to correctly receive it from the Customs services. In order to do so, ContrAtak set in place a procedure in which the Customs services directly send the sample via Chronopost to the right owner established in France or abroad by printing and paying in advance the mailing label. > Since this procedure is set up, it turned out to be, in practice, quick and efficient. The amount invoiced to the right owner is the one invoiced by Chronopost to ContrAtak. Once the sample has been received and appraised, it must in principle be returned to the customs department concerned according to the same procedure before the end of the suspension of release period, unless circumstances do not allow it. These circumstances remain at the discretion of the Customs Service, for example, a sample requiring alteration for the purposes of an expertise or a sample of low value. Exception with respect to patents: Article 19.2 of the Regulation 608/2013 provides that Customs services can only hand over or send samples to right owners of counterfeit goods and pirated goods(as defined in articles 2.5 et 2.6 of the Regulation), which consequently excludes patents. This provision comes from the will of the European legislator to preserve the industrial secrecy. The analysis of the samples by the right owner require the use of the procedure de “saisie -contrefaçon”, whether it is as descriptive seizure with the taking of a sample, or a physical seizure. 2- Condition to ask for the extension of the 10-days delay Pursuant to article 23.4 of the Regulation 608/2013 and article L716-8 of the CPI (for the trademarks), customs authorities may, on duly substantiated grounds by the right holder, extend The 10-day period initially provided for a further period of 10 working days [maximum]. The extension of time and the fixing of the new period granted therefore falls within the discretion of the customs department concerned and may range from 1 to 10 days. The right owner has to address to the Customs services a special request and Customs services is entitled to agree or not to an extension of 10 days at maximum. This means that the extension can be of 1 to 10 days. Such an extension may be granted, for example, where the declarant / holder has opposed the implementation of the simplified destruction procedure before the end of the initial 10-day period, in order to allow the right holder to introduce a legal proceedings. Or in the case where the examination of a sample is made necessary for the determination of the counterfeit character of the goods. |