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(g) Informing of decisions by customs authorities
Article 17(4) provides that the customs authorities shall inform the holder of
the decision and the declarant or the holder of the goods of the actual or
estimated quantity and the actual or presumed nature of the goods, including
available images thereof, as appropriate, whose release has been suspended or
which have been detained. The customs authorities shall also, upon request and
where available to them, inform the holder of the decision of the names and
addresses of the consignee, the consignor and the declarant or the holder of the
goods, of the customs procedure and of the origin, provenance and destination
of the goods whose release has been suspended or which have been detained.
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2. Suspension of the release or detention of the goods before the grant
of an application
(a)
Ex officio
action
Recital (15) to the Customs Regulation explains that in order to ensure the
swift enforcement of IPRs, it should be provided that, where the customs
authorities suspect, on the basis of reasonable indications, that goods under
their supervision infringe IPRs, they may suspend the release of or detain the
goods, whether at their own initiative or upon application, in order to enable a
person or entity entitled to submit an application to initiate proceedings for
determining whether an IPR has been infringed.
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Article 18(1) provides that where the customs authorities identify goods
suspected of infringing an IPR, which are not covered by a decision granting an
application, they may, except in the case of perishable goods, suspend the release
of those goods or detain them.
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Article 2(20) defines 'perishable goods' as 'goods considered by customs author-
ities to deteriorate by being kept for up to 20 days from the date of their
suspension of release or detention'.
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(b) Request for information by customs authorities
Article 18(2) provides that before suspending the release of or detaining the
goods suspected of infringing an IPR, the customs authorities may, without
disclosing any information other than the actual or estimated quantity of goods,
their actual or presumed nature and images thereof, as appropriate, request any
person or entity potentially entitled to submit an application concerning the
alleged infringement of the IPRs to provide them with any relevant infor-
mation.
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