Continued Counterfeiting in China Troubling, Trade Groups Say in USTR Special 301 Filings
China remains the “country of greatest concern over the past year, and it remains the single-largest manufacturer and exporter of counterfeit goods” globally, the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) told Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in comments (here). Despite some recent reform on intellectual property rights enforcement, the National Association of Manufacturers (here) and the National Foreign Trade Council (here) also singled out China over continued issues. The comments were submitted as part of the USTR's annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement (here). China is the top source of counterfeit goods seized by CBP (see 1701170021).
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Although China continued to make progress during 2016 in cracking down on intellectual property infringement, “a number of long-standing concerns remain unaddressed; and the evolving landscape for IP protection and enforcement has resulted in new challenges, requiring a similarly evolving approach,” IACC said. India likewise “remains extremely challenging for rights-holders,” particularly because IACC members “continue to see very high levels of counterfeits in both physical and online markets,” the group said. “Effective border controls are lacking, and fair access to the market is diminished.”
The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America pointed out some new counterfeiting tactics in its comments (here). "Over the last three to four years, the footwear industry has witnessed a growing trend whereby labels and tags are shipped separately from infringing products and are attached to the infringing products in the domestic market. Infringers apparently believe that shipping tags and labels in a separate consignment helps to avoid brand identification by Customs," it said. "In many instances, Customs officials are unwilling to seize product for trademark infringement and are often unwilling to consider design patent infringement as a basis for seizure."