April 2019 — Question 13

A shipment of imported merchandise valued in excess of $50,000.00 is detained on suspicion that the merchandise bears a suspect version of a federally registered trademark that is recorded with CBP. The importer is notified of the detention and given seven days to provide information that would establish that the merchandise does not bear a counterfeit mark. No information is timely provided. Accordingly, CBP provides the owner of the recorded trademark with digital images of the merchandise and its retail packaging, to include images that feature universal product codes that appear on the merchandise. Following receipt of the images, the trademark owner advises CBP that the suspect marks were not applied to the merchandise with authorization. CBP seizes the merchandise on the basis that it bears a counterfeit trademark. Within thirty days from notification of seizure, the importer may:

• ASecure release of the shipment, regardless of whether the trademark owner objects, by removing or obliterating the counterfeit mark in such a manner as to render the mark illegible or incapable of being reconstituted.
• BSecure release of the shipment by establishing that the personal use exemption allowed under 19 C.F.R. § 148.55 is applicable in this situation.
• CSecure release of the shipment by obtaining the trademark owner’s written consent to allow entry of the seized merchandise in its condition as imported or its exportation, entry after obliteration of the mark or other appropriate disposition.✓ CBP's answer
• DSecure release of the shipment, provided the trademark owner does not object in writing, by exporting the merchandise bearing the counterfeit mark to the country of exportation.
• ESecure release of the shipment, provided the trademark owner does not object, by removing or obliterating the counterfeit mark in such a manner as to render the mark illegible or incapable of being reconstituted provided, thereafter, that the merchandise is exported to the country of exportation.