What We Do

• Register your trademarks and copyrights with the Trademark and Copyright office.
• Record registered trademarks and copyrights with US Customs.
• Alert Customs inspectors at specific ports where the importer has indication that infringing goods are being or are or are about to be imported.
• Negotiate licensing agreements with trademark and copyright owners in order to get consent for release.
• Defend against seizures and seek recovery of the merchandise.
• Minimize collateral damage, such as further penalty proceedings, should goods be infringing.

More Details

Customs has the authority to seize and forfeit goods that infringe on the trademark, copyright, or patent of another. Literally tens of millions of dollars worth of merchandise is seized at the borders each year, and the rate of seizures has been increasing. Customs gives an extra layer of protection to trademark and copyright owners. If the goods are stopped at the borders, the trademark or copyright owner will not have to go to the expense of policing the domestic market on its own and bringing costly infringement suits.

Registration of a trademark or copyright with the US Copyright and Trademark Office is alone basis for Customs to seize not only the infringing goods but also any legitimate goods that are included with the shipments. A registered trademark or copyright may be recorded with Customs and will then appear in Customs’ own data bank, increasing the chances that infringing articles are intercepted. More importantly, many “knock-offs” of trademarked or copyrighted items are not identical but only possibly piratical or “confusingly similar.” Customs has no authority to seize such goods unless the trademark or copyright was recorded with Customs.

The fact that the importer was unaware of the infringement is no defense in the case of piratical or identical copies. Customs will not in most cases allow the goods to be imported or even to be exported, absent consent of the trademark or copyright owner. Yet Customs officials are not authorities in intellectual property law. What Customs believes to be an identical, piratical or substantially similar copy may be disputed and on numerous occasions Customs seizures have been successfully contested.

Contact Us for More Information

You are welcome to call us to review any area of concern. Contact Stephen M. Zelman, Esq., at 1+ 212.245.6100 for a telephone consultation, with no obligation for any fee. E-mail at stephenzelman@gmail.com.