Councils make it easier to destroy pirated products
Published: Tuesday, Dec 12th 2023, 09:10
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Due to increasing online trade, more and more counterfeit products are being seized at borders. Parliament has approved the Federal Council's proposals to facilitate the destruction of such pirated products.
On Tuesday, the Council of States approved the law on a simplified procedure for the destruction of small consignments in intellectual property law by 41 votes to 0 and without abstention. Over 90 percent of suspicious goods are currently found in small consignments containing no more than three items.
Today, counterfeit goods can only be destroyed at great expense, even though the cases in question are trivial. In most cases, this effort turns out to be unnecessary because the buyers of the goods do not oppose the destruction.
The Federal Office for Customs and Border Protection (BAZG), which has now reached the limits of its capacity, will benefit from the simplified procedure, said Justice Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider. The Institute for Intellectual Property will now be responsible for both the simplified and the ordinary procedure.
Effort should be reduced
Owners of intellectual property rights should now be able to request that they are only informed about the seizure of suspicious goods if purchasers oppose the destruction. This will allow both customs and rights holders to save procedural steps and thus reduce the administrative burden. However, rights holders can also opt for the previous procedure.
In order to avoid the risk of damage if destruction subsequently proves to be unjustified, destruction should take place at the earliest three months after notification of the retained goods. The import of goods that infringe intellectual property rights should remain exempt from punishment.
According to the Federal Council, the Swiss economy is disproportionately affected by product piracy: worldwide, Swiss rights holders are in fourth place among companies whose intellectual property rights are infringed by counterfeiting.
The bill will return to the National Council with minor amendments proposed by the Council of States.
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