ANTI-COUNTERFEITING

Warning Entry System – Dirección Nacional de Aduanas [Argentine Customs Department]

In our country, a legal prohibition exists on the import or export under any final or suspensive customs destination of goods under false trademarks, pirate copies thereof or infringing other intellectual or industrial property rights which the owner thereof is accorded by the Argentine laws (Law No. 25.986, which amended article 46 of the Customs Code).

Enforcement of such rules is the responsibility of the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos [Argentine Public Income Administration] through application of General Resolution No. 2216, which created within the jurisdiction of the Argentine Customs Department (DGA) an information technology tool called “Warning Entry System”. Trademark owners may register in such system voluntarily (registration of other rights is not currently under implementation). Thus, the DGA conducts a customs control of trademark fraud, enhancing its control capacity and, on the other hand, performing joint tasks with adversely affected trademark owners.

The aforementioned system allows registered right owners to obtain information and inspect any goods identified by their trademark before the goods are launched into the market and distributed throughout the Argentine Republic. If the goods in question are determined to affect trademark owner rights for incurring infringement, a proceeding is instituted to prevent their entry into the country, with the possibility of requesting the destruction of the goods.

The implemented system is one more tool for the client to protect is trademark assets and, therefore, it should be part of the defense strategy of the trademarks owned by him against the scourge of trademark infringement.