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Regional customs authorities have procedures in place for seizing suspected counterfeit goods, but a register of well-known trademarks would help rights owners, says Vladimir Marenović.
The Balkan region consists of eight jurisdictions: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. According to Europol reports, due to its geographic location, the region is an important hub for entry into the EU of counterfeit goods and other illicit items coming from China and Turkey. Each of these jurisdictions has long since introduced border protections for trademarks.
In order to take advantage of the available border protection measures, trademark proprietors must lodge a Customs Application with the customs authorities. Once this is done, border protection measures will be applied for the specific trademarks covered by the Customs Application and to the products covered by those trademarks. This approach is in line with the principle of trademark specialty.
The simplified procedure
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well-known trademarks, counterfeiting, border protections, Customs applicatoin
