On 18 April 2018, the Official Journal published Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/582 of 12 April 2018 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1352/2013 establishing the forms provided for in Regulation (EU) No 608/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning customs enforcement of intellectual property rights (the “amending Regulation”). The amending Regulation revises the application form to be used when requesting customs action to enforce intellectual property rights (IPR). The form has been adapted to take account of the practical experience made in using the form established in Regulation (EU) 1352/2013 as well as to ensure a trouble free transmission and exchange of information via the central database referred to in Article 31 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013. The revisions are:
- Details concerning the applicant shall be entered in box 1 (‘Applicant’). It shall contain information on the name and complete address of the applicant, his Taxpayer Identification Number, any other national registration number or his Economic Operator Registration and Identification Number (EORI-No), which is a number, unique throughout the Union, assigned by a customs authority in a Member State to economic operators involved in customs activities, his telephone, mobile telephone or fax number and his email address. The applicant may also enter, where appropriate, his website address;
- Where an application is submitted after the customs authorities have suspended the release of or detained the goods at their own initiative, in accordance with Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, this shall be indicated on the application form in box 2 by the applicant, by ticking the box ‘National application (cf. Article 5(3))’;
The application was updated to reflect the replacement in Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 of the term ‘Community trade mark’ by the term ‘European Union trade mark’; - In case of a Union application, wWhere the applicant requests the use of the procedure for the destruction of goods in small consignments in accordance with Article 26 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, he is now able to specify whether he wishes that procedure to be used in all the Member States or in one or several specific Member States, by ticking the appropriate box of the Member State, or Member States, in which he wishes to have the procedure applied;
- The applicant is required to provide in the application form the names and addresses of involved companies and traders as that information is relevant to the customs authorities’ analysis and assessment of the risk of infringement;
Taking into account that, in accordance with Article 31 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, all exchanges of data on decisions relating to applications and detentions between the Member States and the Commission are to be made via the central database of the Commission and that that database needs to be adjusted to the new application form, the amendments to Annexes I and III to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1352/2013 shall apply from 15 May 2018.
