Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Through Border Measures

Olivier Vrins is attorney-at-law at Altius, one of the leading Belgian law firms in the field of intellectual property. He graduated in law at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), and completed a Master in European Law at the European Institute of Ghent University (Belgium) as well as a Master (LL.M) in Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition at Queen Mary & Westfield College (University of London). His practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, including anti-counterfeiting. He has published several articles on intellectual property related issues, including on border measures (eg under EC Regulation 1383/2003). He was invited to give seminars on the implementation of EC intellectual property law as part of the PHARE program of the EC Commission in the East and Central European Countries. Marius Schneider works with Gevers & Partners, which were recently nominated as the Benelux leading intellectual property consultants in 2004 by Managing Intellectual Property. Before joining Gevers & Partners he practised at the Brussels bar. He is a graduate of the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), University College London (LL.M) and the Brussels Katholieke Universiteit (Master in Intellectual Property). Mr Schneider is the director of the anti-counterfeiting department of Gevers & Partners, where he also practises mostly trade mark and design law, and he lectures on intellectual property at the ICHEC and VLEKHO colleges. He was invited as part of the PHARE program of the EC Commission to give seminars on the implementation of EC intellectual property law in the East and Central European Countries. He was also invited to chair a panel of authorised specialists on anti-counterfeiting at the Brussels Intellectual Property 2004 Summit supported by the European Commission in December 2004.

PART I: INTRODUCTION; 1. The Phenomenon of Counterfeiting and Piracy in the European Union: Factual Overview and Legal and Institutional Framework; PART II: INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK; 2. The International Legal Framework on Border Measures in the fight against Counterfeiting and Piracy; PART III: COMMUNITY LEGAL FRAMEWORK; 3. Regulation (EC) 1383/2003; PART IV: BORDER MEASURES AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL; 4. Austria; 5. Belgium; 6. Cyprus; 7. Czech Republic; 8. Denmark; 9. Estonia; 10. Finland; 11. France; 12. Germany; 13. Greece; 14. Hungary; 15. Ireland; 16. Italy; 17. Latvia; 18. Lithuania; 19. Luxembourg; 20. Malta; 21. The Netherlands; 22. Poland; 23. Portugal; 24. Slovakia; 25. Slovenia; 26. Spain; 27. Sweden; 28. United Kingdom; PART V: CONCLUSION; 29. Intellectual Property: Borders and Crossroads; APPENDICES; EC Regulation 1383/2003 concerning customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights; EC Regulation 1891/2004 laying down provisions for the implementation of EC Regulation 1383/2003; TRIPS Agreement: Section 4 (Articles 51 - 60): 'Special Requirements Related to Border Measures'