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New EU Customs Borders: what level of protection the brand owners can expect from the Baltic states?. Romans Baumanis INDICAM Forum Milan, Italy 31 March 2004. The Baltic hub: area for trade and smuggling. Borders with Finland, Russia, Belarus, Poland.
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New EU Customs Borders:what level of protection the brand owners can expect from the Baltic states? Romans Baumanis INDICAM Forum Milan, Italy 31 March 2004
The Baltic hub: area for trade and smuggling • Borders with Finland, Russia, Belarus, Poland. • Ice-free ports and well developed transit infrastructure. • 3rd year in the row on the USTR 301 watch list. • Track record of large smuggling cases.
The Baltic hub: area for trade and smuggling • Current seizures • Multi million cigarette smuggling cases have been reported, involving terrorist organizations. • Several manufacturing facilities have been discovered in Latvia.
IPR Protection status • TRIPS compliance achieved on paper • Basic IPR literacy achieved through bilateral, multilateral and private sector training programs for Customs and police.
IPR Protection status • Significant personnel changes in Customs and police reduce effectiveness of the trainings. • Lack of financial and human resources, insufficient technical means.
IPR Protection status • Judiciary system is slow to understand and implement IPR laws • IP violations still perceived as victimless crime by the Governments • Global scale of counterfeiting: additional challenge for the EU
Latvia • Possibility for ex-officio actions exists; Customs start using it. • Customs applications: currently around 69, 4 in electronic form, no fee. • IPR infringement data collection and sharing: virtually non-existent among Latvian agencies nor at the pan-Baltic level • CIPR-REACT joint venture as of Feb. 2004
Latvia The Government shows selective awareness of the counterfeiting problem!
Lithuania • Possibility for ex-officio actions exists; seldom used: 4 cases in 2003. • Applications accepted: 2001- 9; 2002 - 24; 2003 - 30, fee - 150 €/ 2 years. • Information gathering: CEN form is not used; some limited information exchange exists between GOL agencies. • CIPR-REACT project soon operational.
Estonia • Possibility for ex-officio actions exists; seldom used. New Directive will give additional powers. • Currently 68 applications; no fee; kept as hard copies - no electronic submission form. • Data gathering: CEN form is not used; same case as in Latvia and Lithuania.
What can be done to improve IPR protection? • Use diplomatic channels to underscore importance of IPR protection. • Develop cooperation with the Governments - show concern and support. • Share information to achieve better enforcement. • Assist with enforcement - REACT type of cooperation. • Build brand protection capacity within the organization. • Develop trust by consistent actions!
WWW.CIPR.ORG romans.baumanis@cipr.org