The Customs News

Some of this is old-ish, but still may be of interest.

Customs has opened the last three of its planned Centers of Excellence and Expertise. The new CEE are in Atlanta (Consumer Products and Mass Merchandise), Miami (Agriculture and Prepared Products), and San Francisco (Apparel, Textiles, and Footwear). If you are currently participating in a CEE, please post a comment as to how you think it is working and whether you see any benefits yet.

President Obama Seeking to Strengthen Enforcement of ITC Exclusion Orders. According to a White House announcement, the Administration has taken a number of steps to improve the enforcement and administration of the patent laws. One such step involves asking the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator to undertake a review of current Customs and Border Protection and International Trade Commission procedures used to evaluate the scope of an ITC exclusion order for enforcement purposes. This is an interesting issue as it is not always clear which agency has the final say and whether an exclusion results in a protestable event for purposes of judicial review in the Court of International Trade, as recently happened in the Corning Gilbert case.



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