Foreign IP Border Measures

Many countries around the world have adopted IP border measures, which authorize their national Customs officials to seize shipments of allegedly infringing products and/or block future importations (and, in some cases, exportations) of such products. Surprisingly, many of these foreign border measures are underutilized. Companies that develop coordinated global IP border enforcement strategies can engineer effective international IP protection against infringers worldwide, thereby protecting their proprietary technology and brands in multiple markets simultaneously. In a defensive posture, the proliferation of these border measures requires companies which have multiple major foreign markets and face the threat of IP litigation to have developed a sound strategy to mitigate the impact of such measures.

Our Capabilities

International Measures

Trade in merchandise that infringes IP rights has increased sharply in the past five years. As this trade swells, countries realize that they must have more tools to address these problems than have historically been available as purely domestic remedies. In response, there has been a rapid growth in the adoption of IP border measures, which in turn has added a challenging new set of factors to consider in developing global competitive and litigation strategy Multinational companies that do so proactively can obtain rapid and robust IP border enforcement in multiple markets, thereby maximizing the returns from their IP investments, while protecting brand equity and overall financial health. Companies that fail to take these tools into account can find themselves severely disadvantaged in unfamiliar and fast-moving foreign proceedings that may offer limited adversarial rights. Inasmuch as these foreign proceedings can result in de facto bans on future import activity, companies ignore such proceedings at their peril.

Heller Ehrman's IP and trade attorneys in Washington, D.C. and Asia have extensive experience in international border measures and offer companies a truly "global" approach to IP border enforcement and global litigation strategy development. We have advised clients on coordinated strategies involving the IP border measures maintained in the United States, Japan, Korea, China and the European Union.

Representative Engagements: Foreign Intellectual Property Border Measures

• Advised private companies and foreign governments on the operation of IP border enforcement regimes in the United States, Europe, Japan, China and South Korea.
• Advised consumer products manufacturers on coordinated use of China's export-focused IP border measure along with U.S. import-focused IP border measure, thereby helping the company develop strategies to choke off the supply of infringing goods from the primary country of export, while at the same time blocking importation of such goods into the primary consumer market.
• Assisted major semiconductor manufacturer in designing and implementing coordinated strategy to use U.S. and European border enforcement measures both defensively and offensively.
• Advised U.S. high-tech trade association on strategies for coordinating the use of Chinese IP border enforcement measures and U.S. Section 337 and Customs border enforcement remedies.