Revision of the European Union Regime on Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

Abstract

A new Regulation on Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights will come into force throughout the European Union in January 2014. This new measure seeks to address some of the problems encountered with the old regime, but it leaves some problems unresolved. This article reviews the new regulation and compares it with the old. It also discusses how the major controversy that was associated with the previous regime, that of goods in transit, has been addressed outside the framework of this legislative change and is set to be further addressed by legislative change in the context of the forthcoming proposed revision of trademark law.