§1328 — Title 17 Copyrights | U.S. Code

Summary

The Treasury Secretary and the U.S. Postal Service must make rules to enforce design protection at the border. Those rules can require a person seeking to stop imports to do one or more of these: get a court or International Trade Commission order blocking the import; show the design is protected and the imports would infringe it; or post a surety bond to cover harm if the exclusion is later found wrongful. Goods that violate these design rights can be seized and treated like other customs violations. Seized items may be destroyed unless the importer proves they had no reasonable reason to think they broke the law, in which case the items may be returned to the country of export.

Title 17, §1328

Copyrights — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of the Treasury and the United States Postal Service shall separately or jointly issue regulations for the enforcement of the rights set forth in section 1308 with respect to importation. Such regulations may require, as a condition for the exclusion of articles from the United States, that the person seeking exclusion take any one or more of the following actions:

(1)Obtain a court order enjoining, or an order of the International Trade Commission under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 excluding, importation of the articles.

(2)Furnish proof that the design involved is protected under this chapter and that the importation of the articles would infringe the rights in the design under this chapter.

(3)Post a surety bond for any injury that may result if the detention or exclusion of the articles proves to be unjustified.

(b)Articles imported in violation of the rights set forth in section 1308 are subject to seizure and forfeiture in the same manner as property imported in violation of the customs laws. Any such forfeited articles shall be destroyed as directed by the Secretary of the Treasury or the court, as the case may be, except that the articles may be returned to the country of export whenever it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury that the importer had no reasonable grounds for believing that his or her acts constituted a violation of the law.

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, referred to in subsec. (a)(1), is classified to section 1337 of Title 19, Customs Duties.

§1328 Enforcement by Treasury and Postal Service

Summary

Title 17, §1328

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

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