Attorney Steve® Intellectual Property Protection - Registering your copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets with the United States Customs and Border Patrol (IPR e-Recordation).
Introduction
Protecting your intellectual property is an important aspect of protecting your brand. Preventing counterfeit goods from being imported and distributed can be aided by a registration with the IPRR which will allow you to register trademarks (must be on the principle register as opposed to the supplemental register) and copyrights that are registered with the USCO (United States Copyright Office). Patents and Trade Secrets also may be registered to protect against incoming counterfeits and infringing goods.
IPR Recording
We can help companies of all types and organizational sizes to get registered into the CPB system. Once done, (which can take as little as a week), the Customs and Border Protection Law Enforcement Agency will monitor and protect incoming / imported goods. If they have "probable cause" to believe the goods are infringing on a copyright or trademark (patent or trade secret) they have the legal authority to seize them. Typically, the company would be notified and have a chance to pursue the importer/infringer in either a private enforcement action or in a federal lawsuit depending on who the defendant is and whether or not they are worth pursuing. Sometimes, the infringer/importer does not know better. Sometimes they do. We can help enforce your rights against either as they typically incur substantial amounts of time and money to pursue.
Watch Attorney Steve Vondran, IP Lawyer, explain this legal issue on his Popular Legal YouTube Channel
VIDEO: Make sure to SUBSCRIBE to our popular channel to join nearly 35,000 others who love our content. As we like to say "Be Smarter Than Your Friends."
CBP Points of Entry
You can probably guess some of the main points of entry that the CPB monitors. Typical ones such as Seattle, Boston, Los Angles, Tucson Arizona, and others probably spring to mind. But, being the top law enforcement agency in the United States, there are probably way more than you ever realized. Here is a look at a map of the entry ports from the CPB.
In just California alone we find the following:
All told, there are over 300 points of entry (314 at last look) where the CPB will monitor and enforce IP rights and have the power to seize and even destroy infringing goods.
Once registered through the IPRR system, your registrations (you should do one for each trademark classification or each copyright for example), it will appear on their IPR search website.
From here, the CBP will be on your team so to speak.
Attorney Steve® Tip: As noted in the video, you can present a special webinar to the IPR division to educate them on the unique problems faced by your brand. This can be a very important tool to helping Stop Fakes. Per their website, there are some very important reasons for taking the time to do this:
IPR "Product Identification Webinars"
How a right holder can partner with CBP to produce Product ID Webinars:
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IPR Right holders who conduct product identification trainings at the Ports see heightened identification of counterfeit goods. CBP now offers online Right holder training opportunities.
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Trainings can be conducted from your place of business or our offices according to your preference.
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Trainings can be transmitted live to multiple ports minimizing your travel cost, maximizing the number of CBP attendants, and allowing for question and answer periods.
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Training webinars are recorded allowing for future viewing by rotating Port personnel. As product identification information changes, webinars can be updated, building a portfolio of webinars about your products available to CBP.
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Requirement to conduct online IPR Right holder training are the same as at the Ports. Trademarks need to be recorded with CBP IPR and product guides (used for training) must be current and vetted for the event.
To schedule online training events please contact the IPR Division at [email protected].
According to their website - The total number of searchable IPR recordations in this database is 43559
Allegations of infringement can be reported on their e-allegation page. Rewards may be possible for those whistleblowers willing to report infringers/counterfeiters. It would be wise to have counsel represent you in order to: (1) try to stay anonymous (not guaranteed as the CPB may need to investigate) and; (2) make sure you get paid if recovery occurs.
| 4,746 | Counterfeit Trademark & Piratical Copyright Reported |
Most often infringed Goods
Some of the most often pirated or infringing (counterfeit goods) are:
- Rolex watches
- Lous Vuitton bags
- Nike
- Addidas
- Apple products (ex. air pods, chargers, lightning cables)
Contact an Intellectual Property Law Firm
Since 2004, our business and IP law firm has helped individuals and businesses of all sizes protect and enforce their intellectual property including trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks, and defend them when necessary. We have helped businesses from small "mom and pop" companies up to very large organizations bring and defend actions pertaining to intellectual property rights. If you are seeking legal representation to assist with filing for IPR protection for your IP to help protect against infringing or counterfeit goods or even gray market goods, or if you are an IPR Whistleblower contact us to discuss at (877) 276-5084 or email us through our contact form.
We are also well-versed in litigation having handled over 300 state and federal court lawsuits. We offer low flat rate (predictable) legal fees for our IPRR recording service.
