Paraguay Adopts Important Antipiracy Measure

Paraguayan authorities have been stepping up efforts against piracy. In a recent measure, the Director General of Paraguay Customs implemented a new service for registering intellectual property rights with the Paraguay Customs Registration Department.

Owners of trademarks, patents, industrial designs or copyrights in the country may register them with customs authorities to prevent the traffic of counterfeit merchandise across the country’s borders. These go into the Customs Registration Department database, giving customs employees access to detailed information about the legitimate owners of intellectual property rights for products in circulation there. This computerized database may be accessed from all customs points in the country.

With intellectual property registered with the Customs Registration Department, importers must specify the mark, patent, industrial design or copyrighted material that is entering the country. If the information provided is false or inconsistent with that on file with the Customs Registration Department, the owner (or his legal representative) is contacted and called to attest to the products’ origin.

The local representative is given access to the seized material so he may take photographs or even send samples to the company that registered with customs. The products are held for approximately 5 to 10 days.

If infringement is proven, the owner of the violated right may submit the material to the criminal justice specialized in intellectual property matters so that it may file charges in a criminal suit. In this case, the owner of the violated right is a victim in the criminal action.

The owner of the violated right may also file his own criminal suit, in which he is a party in the proceeding. The advantage of the latter is that the owner may present arguments in his own petition and be notified of all acts in the criminal action proceedings.

In order to register with the Customs Registration Department, the party must own or hold a license (with special powers) for a patent, trademark or industrial design duly obtained in the country. Industrial design or trademark applications and patents in the process of examination must first be duly granted before they can be registered with customs authorities.

Since Paraguay is a member of the Berne Convention, copyrights do not need to be registered there. However, claiming such rights requires submission of a sworn statement together with a copy of the registration in a country that is also a member of the Berne Convention.

Initially the Customs Registration Department set January 30, 2008 as the registration deadline, but in light of heavy demand, it extended the period indefinitely. The objective is to give intellectual property rights owners the opportunity to register their rights with Customs, thereby providing authorities with information to help them combat piracy in the country.

This measure is very important for both intellectual property rights owners and customs authorities, as it helps build an electronic database that can be accessed at different customs points. The praiseworthy measure promises to be a tough blow by the Paraguayan government in the war against international piracy.

co-authored with José Eduardo de V. Pieri