Official response from the State Customs Committee to the CIPR-authored letter of support to the RF Customs Code ex officio amendment

Dear Alexander Alexeevich:

Following letter No. P2-582 from the RF Government Apparatus to the State Customs Committee on April 23, 2003, we have discussed your proposal dated September 4, 2003 and herein inform you that the Russian State Customs Code was passed by the Russian State Duma on April 25, 2003 on its third reading and approved by the Federation Council on May 14, 2003.

According to Clause 1 of Article 41 of TRIPS (Marrakesh, April 15, 1994), the procedures aimed at protecting intellectual property stipulated in the above-mentioned agreement were created in compliance with the national legislations of the agreement's members. Russian legislation on administrative violations is a part of the national legislation of the Russian Federation. In accordance with Article 28.3, Section 2, Clause 12 of the RF Code on Administrative Law Violations, customs officials are entitled to develop reports on administrative violations stipulated in Article 7.12, Section 1 (Violations of Copyrights and Allied Rights) and Article 14.10 (Illegal Use of Trademarks). Therefore, the authority of customs agents to act on their own initiative to suspend the release of goods (so-called "ex officio") in cases when there is sufficient evidence of an administrative violation, stipulated in Articles 7.12 and 14.10 of the RF Code on Administrative Law Violations, is provided for by Russian Legislation, which meets the requirements of TRIPS.

Russian customs officials are not given the authority to act ex officio outside the scope of the RF Code on Administrative Law Violations. This authority was excluded from the RF Customs Code in order to limit the possibilities for biased decisions on suspending the release of goods by Russian customs officials, which could inflict substantial costs on participants in foreign-economic activities.