Regulations on Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Amended and Effective as of 1 April 2010

The Decision of the State Council on Amendment of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (hereinafter as “Regulations”) was adopted at the 103rd Executive Meeting of the State Council on 17 March 2010, and promulgated on 24 March 2010.

The amended Regulations bring about changes in 5 aspects:

1. In case of any change to the recorded details of an intellectual property right, the Customs may cancel the relevant recordal if the intellectual property right holder fails to go through the formalities for modification or cancellation as required (Article 11).

2. The intellectual property right holder, after filing an application with the Customs for protection measures, may, in accordance with relevant legal provisions, apply to a people’s court for an order to stop the infringing acts or for property preservation measures with regard to the suspected infringing goods under detainment (Article 23.1).  

3. Where an intellectual property right holder withdraws his/its application for detaining suspected infringing goods, the Customs shall release the detained goods (Article 24.5).

4. The Customs may lawfully auction the detained goods after the infringement features thereof have been eliminated, but for imported goods with counterfeited trademarks, except for special circumstances, such goods shall not be permitted to be traded by merely clearing off the trademarks thereon (Article 27.3).

5. Where an individual carries or mails inbound/outbound articles in a quantity exceeding the reasonable quantity for personal use and infringing an intellectual property right, such article shall be handled as infringing goods (Article 31).

The amended Regulations have come into force since 1 April 2010.