TRUBAREVO; SKOPJE, Macedonia - August 20 2010

Case report:
The seizure was made by the Macedonian Customs authorities in Trubarevo; Skopje- Macedonia.
They have seized: 535 Louis Vuitton hand bags.
Louis Vuitton confirmed that the goods are counterfeits, and request for destruction has been filed at the Macedonian Customs office.
Once it's approved, the goods will be destroyed.

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands - August 19 2010

Case report:
The SNB-REACT network has once again been extended: we have entered a partnership in Israel with Schuman & Co., Advocates & Notary, seated in Jerusalem. The offered services will include: C&D-letters, Court Witness, Provision of Witness Statements, Affidavits for Law Enforcement, Long Form Customs Cases, Simplified Procedure and Desk Provisional Research.

Please send an email to info@snbreact.org if you are interested in one of these services.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - July 07 2010

Case report:
With support of individual members SNB-REACT filed civil complaints with the aim of breaking the usual court decision practice and making the court recognise that the open-air market landlords are partly responsible for the intellectual property infringements that cause the violation of the goodwill of legal entities. The civil action was taken against Delta Center a.s., the landlord of the Holesovice open-air market in the centre of Prague, where counterfeits are offered on the daily basis.

The Czech Republic is facing a long-term problem with open-air markets, where the majority of the counterfeits are sold.  Almost all of these markets are controlled or managed by organized groups, mostly from the Czech-Vietnamese community where seizing goods at their stands do not have a substantial impact. It is very common that after a raid where thousands of goods are seized, the next day the stands are full again as it was resupplied overnight.

The landlord liability project is divided into two civil actions.
First, the lawsuit on refraining from actions causing violation of the right of protecting the goodwill of a legal entity where no damages are required, only the recognition of the claim.
The second part is Lawsuit for payment of damages. The aim of this civil action is to make the court recognise that the financial damage is caused by operating the open-air market on which the counterfeits are sold.

BAR, Montenegro - July 07 2010

Case report:
07-07-2010 15:57 BAL
Montenegro Customs authorities have made a seizure in port Bar.
Total amount of goods seized is:
-33 packages Lacoste cigarettes.

Lacoste was notified of the seizure and identification photos have been sent.
Counterfeit was confirmed as Lacoste does not produce this kind of goods.

Goods will be destroyed after completing the procedure.

PRAGUE (SAPA OPEN AIR MARKET), Czech Republic - May 20 2010

Case report:
Czech customs discovered big storage place of counterfeited goods in the biggest Prague open-air market SAPA. Among the found goods were also 25.000 items of Ed Hardy caps.

, Croatia - May 04 2010

Case report:
In Februaray 2010 (and previously  in October 2009) the Croatian customs prevented
attempts of smuggling of counterfeit perfumes through Croatia. Both
shipments were comming from Turkey and heading to the EU. France was the
final destination. The perfumes were hidden in the back of a truck full of
textile products. These are the largest seizures of perfumes in Croatia ever
both occured at the Bajakovo outpost on the border between Croatia and
Serbia. The October seizure involved 48892 perfumes and the second one in
February involved 44706 perfumes designated with trademarks of over 20
different brands. The customs estimate the overall value of seized products
is 9,2 million HRK (approx. 1,3 million EUR). Most of the subject
counterfeits are destroyed while some still await destruction.

STRAZNY, Czech Republic - April 25 2010

Case report:
Czech customs together with SNB-REACT raided the German border open-air market in Strazny on Sunday 25.4.2010. During the raid was seized 902 counterfeits and discovered hidden storage place.

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands - March 31 2010

Case report:
01-04-2010 12:29 RBR

The Court of Appeal confirmed a decision of the Court of First Instance in a matter from REACT members Polo by Ralph Lauren and Timberland against a retail chain in sports goods; Bakker Sport.

One of the three Director of Bakker Sport, had signed a general cease and desist letter following a small case in 2001 (regarding another brands than PRL and Timberland!) back in 2001. In 2002,
Bakker Sport had a few hundreds of counterfeit products in their stores from the mentioned brands! This resulted in an action by REACT to enforce the penalty clause and with success. The Court of First Instance granted the claims; high penalties had to be paid by Bakker Sport to the brands concerned. This despite of the fact that only during the proceedings, Bakker Sport claimed that the cease and desist letter was signed by only one director who was formally not empowered (according to the Trade Register the company could only validly be represented by two directors) to represent this particular legal person belonging to the Bakker Sport group. At that time Bakker Sport consisted of 3 different companies all with the objective to sell sports goods at consumer level.

Bakker Sport went into appeal against the decision to claim that the cease and desist letter was not validly undersigned and should be considered void. In an interim decision the Court of Appeal urged the rights owners to provide evidence showing that there were reasons to believe that the director signing this document was representing the entire Bakker Sports Group. REACT and its members provided evidence in the sense of: invoices from all companies signed by the director,  actual correspondence to the other director who silently agreed; and the late objections by Bakker Sport raising the lack of competence. Particularly the last argument convinced the Court of Appeal who confirmed the decision of the Court of First Instance.

DEN HAAG, The Netherlands - March 15 2010

Case report:
19-04-2010 17:09 MJO
A reminder was sent.

25-03-2010 10:49 MJO
The defendant was summonned to disclose his supplier.

15-03-2010 10:23 JPE
Upon request of our member, our investigator visited the shop Sammy's Outlet in Den Haag
The owner signed a cease and desist letter.

, Greece - January 22 2010

Case report:
The Greek economic police has organized a raid in a big store "Brands-outlet" in Ioannina on 20-01-2010.
They were informed that there is a mixed sale of originals and counterfeited products at that store.
Some brands confirmed the products sold int he store were original, others, like La Martina and Polo Ralph Lauren confirmed their products were counterfeit.

The police has seized the goods and the procedure for destroying the goods is ongoing.

A criminal procedure will follow against the infringer; after the verdict the goods will be destroyed.

PRAGUE , Czech Republic - February 05 2010

Case report:
Czech customs discovered on 17.12.2009 factory located in Prague which was used for poducing counterfeits of more than 30 brands. The factory contained 3 embroided machines, one creasing  machine, 48 embossing dies and 22 381 labels. The surrounding storage places contained 47 490 items of counterfeited goods. Czech customs arrested 14 Vietnamese suspects.

BOGORODICA, Macedonia - July 09 2009

Case report:
Macedonian Customs in Bogorodica, (at the Macedonian/ Greek border) made a seizure of a large quantity of Gillette products
on 09.07.2009
18 450 pieces of Gillette razors were seized and P&G confirmed that the seized goods are counterfeit.
They were shipped from China and destined for the market in Kosovo.

Macedonian Customs authorities have approved the destruction of the goods
and they will be destroyed in the up coming period.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - January 29 2010

Case report:
After the initial problems obtaining a search warrant for the first raid at the Grand Bazaar, in November 2009
with the second raid in January 2010, we succeeded to get a search warrant within a few days.

This raid aimed on three targets selling Chanel products; we seized in total 115 handbags
and 13 watches bearing the Chanel trade mark.
Interesting is that there hat there were hidden cabinets behind the
shelves in the shops, which could be open by a hidden pushbutton!
Most of bags were found in those hidden cabinets.

There will not be a long court procedure as our lawyers already came to a settlement
and substantial sum of damages will be paid by the infringers.
The goods are partly already destroyed under surveillance of our team.
Besides the infringers signed a penalty clause,
the likely-hood they will sell counterfeit Chanel products in the future is minimal! 

ISTANBUL, Turkey - November 18 2009

Case report:
FIRST GRAND BAZAAR ACTIONS REACT Turkey!!

REACT Turkey has had their first raids on the notorious Grand Bazaar of Istanbul yesterday, 17 November 2009! Although this can be considered mostly symbolic in view of the huge amounts of counterfeit goods offered at this market, it is a serious move from REACT Turkey to show that the Grand Bazaar can not be considerred a'free zone' for counterfeit trade.
First the requests for raids were refused by the Public Prosecutor. In second instance the search warrants were granted. Unfortunately not an uncommon procedure in Turkey. In three stands about 200 watches, 300 fashion goods and about 20 leather belts were seized.

The Grand Bazaar action also fits in the attempts of SNBREACT to push landlords towards a more responsible behavious. These actions will be used by SNBREACT to approach the landlords of the Bazaar, to seek for cooperation in order to prevent traders to use the Bazaar as a location to sell counterfeit goods.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - August 31 2009

Case report:
On 26-08-2009 with cooperation of local Police a raid took place on the biggest Prague open-air market. Several stands were selected that were opened with the state permission. The opened stands were used as walk-in shopping premises  and also as storage places. Some stands had double walls behind which  counterfeited goods were found. Police also has seized several counterfeited logos just prepared to be ironed on shoes or textile just on the stand upon the customer need.

, The Netherlands -

Case report:
01-07-2009
During a raid on various location in the Netherlands a total quantity of 60,000 garments were seized. SNB-REACT will file criminal complaints on behalf of the members involved. The Economical Police made several arrest and the investigation against this network is ongoing.

PRAHA, Czech Republic - June 16 2009

Case report:
Prague, Czech Republic - June 2, 2009
Czech customs with cooperation of SNB-REACT CZ and trademark representatives took a raid in "Prazska trznice", Prague open-air market. Six trademark representatives participated on this raid as provocateurs pretending interest in counterfeits.  The result of the raid will be known soon.

, The Netherlands -

Case report:
12-05-2009 15:04 LHE
Below an opinion letter of Lisette Heslenfeld which has been published in a Dutch daily paper, Het Financieeel Dagblad (Financial Daily Paper),  on Mai  5, 2009. In the letter Lisette Heslenfeld argues that the EU fails with respect to combat of counterfeit, because the EU does not include the service providers who facilitate the counterfeit business  (such as carrier, open markets and internet service providers)  in its initiatives to fight counterfeit. 

Prague, Czech Republic - April 28 2009

Case report:
Czech customs with cooperation of SNB-REACT took a raid at Prague most problematic open-air market "Holesovicka trznice" with aim to control two stands.  During the control there was found underground hidden storage place full of counterfeited goods. The total amount fo found goods reached 3 393 items which filled 72 big sacks.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands - April 29 2009

Case report:
Amsterdam, 29 April 09

Extension network SNBREACT to TURKEY AND CROATIA

In Turkey and Croatia SNBREACT concluded (for Turkey about to conclude) agreements with external partners. Particularly, the Turkish market is extremely impotant for SNBREACT members. SNBREACT decided to focus on invetigative work in Turkey.

TURKEY
SNBREACT will soon have an agreement with an experienced investigator/paralegal. The services in Turkey will be mostly operational

Customs cases
Police and market cases
Investigations
Internet Monitoring
Lobbying/Training

CROATIA
In Croatia SNBREACT concluded an agreement with an experienced IP lawfirm to enable members to follow up
Customs cases and perform market researches and police raids.

For further inquiries, pls contact Ronald Brohm rbrohm@snbreact.nl

Trieste, Italy - February 25 2009

Case report:
02-03-2009 12:37 RAR
Reference case 090256IT: while unloading the goods, Customs found out that there were other products as follow:

- 320 Bjorn Borg sweatshirts;
- 6900 Bjorn Borg underwear;
- 2700 Burberry shirts;
- 30 Burberry scarves;
- 300 G-Star shirts;
- 1500 G-Star t-shirt.

The goods were found on board of a truck coming from Turkey and destined to France.

The data of the companies involved are the following:
exporters: SARIKAYA TEKSTIL - ISTANBUL 
                 YAPI TEKNOLOJILERI – ISTANBUL:
importer: AMB IMPORT  78 Rue de Abukir 75002 PARIS
We received the pictures with the request of a technical expertise.

Bjorn Borg goods are counterfeit: expertise and POA filed.
Burberry goods are fake and an expertise was filed.
G-Star goods are fake and an expertise was filed.

We asked our correspondent in France if he could carry out a brief investigation on the importing company. According to first checks, the area of Paris where AMB Company is located is a well known wholesaling place (Le Sentier).  It will not be impossible that this French company ordered to the Turkish one (as mentioned in the invoice) the manufacture of the infringing goods for shipping somewhere else.
At this stage, our correspondent suggested to go to this address and check if the company exists.

In looking very quickly on Internet, our correspondent found a company named AMB Import Export heaving its head office at 7 rue Saint-Sauveur. Very recent creation (May 2008).  Representative: Mr. Wahid Lakehal. Type of business: Inter-enterprise textile wholesaling.

Here follow the comments of our correspondent after visiting the address: "Unlike most of the buildings in this textile wholesaler area of Paris, there is no shop at the bottom of the building. Only a steep staircase where none of the mailboxes mentions AMB IMPORT and/or a Wahid LAKEHAL. I checked with the shops on both sides of number 78 and none had ever heard of AMB IMPORT.
Therefore, it appears that it is a wholly factious address which might have been given randomly, knowing that rue d’Aboukir is the main street of the textile wholesaler area".

Ponte San Pietro, Italy - March 23 2009

Case report:
23-03-2009 14:21 GLA

The Carabinieri of San Pietro, near Bergamo, carried out a large seizure of Burberry articles and called Fabrizio to take a look at the products and retrieve samples. The raid was carried out in a large garage which was being used as a laboratory by Chinese and which was owned by a Tunisian. Besides the Burberry products there were many other brands. The seizure took place two months ago but the Carabinieri have still not counted them all, so we can estimate approximately 500 t-shirts and 800 polos. We will request the number of criminal proceeding in order to file the POA to follow up the case.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands - March 06 2009

Case report:
SNB-REACT addresses accountability service providers

Right holders cannot combat the counterfeit trade by themselves only. This phenomenon can only successfully be combated if all parties who facilitate the counterfeit business cooperate.

Service Providers such as Internet Service Providers, Transporters and landlords of markets and fairs have a corporate social responsibility in this matter. They should seriously consider what contribution they can make, instead of the structural and profitable facilitation to this criminal activity.

A positive step forwarding regarding this matter was the Directive 2004/48 on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. The Directive recognizes that intermediaries are a relevant link in the counterfeit business. The right owner can request the court to order the intermediary to provide relevant information about the infringement and to issue an injunction against the intermediary whose services are being used by a third party to infringe an intellectual property right.

SNB-REACT tries to involve Service Providers in the combat against counterfeit through legislation, lobbying and negotiations.

In its general assembly of 6 March, SNB-REACT also decided to start legal proceedings, when negotiation or cooperation with service providers do no satisfy our goals against service providers which are:
- The swift removal of fake goods
- To disclose counterfeit traders
- Pro active support from the service provider

Genova, Italy - February 11 2009

Case report:
07-05-2009 11:44 SFA
The Customs provided us with the following information: criminal proceeding n. 4383/09/21, Public Prosecutor Mr. Bogliolo, Court of Genova.

19-02-2009 14:43 GLA
The complaint was filed with customs and we are waiting to know which Public Prosecutor has been assigned to this case in order to follow up and set a meeting with him.

11-02-2009 10:42 RAR
Detention made by the Customs of Genova concerning 754 pairs of trousers and 645 pairs of shorts bearing Columbia trademark coming from Vietnam and destined to Italy.
We received the pictures with the request of a technical expertise.
Photos were sent to brand owner who stated that the goods are parellel imports and not fake products.
The consignee of the goods is company Bivac snc which was involved in previous cases.
We suggested Columbia to file a complaint claiming the civil infringement and to ask for the seizure of the goods. In this case we can infact apply article 127 of the Italian IP code in order to ask for the seizure of the grey market goods coming from extra EU countries.

Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles - February 13 2009

Case report:
03-03-2009 17:05 RBR
The Public Prosecutor gave  a conditional pardon for all  infringers as this was the very time such enormous action took place in
history of Curacao. From Wednesday 11th february 2009, all buisinesses and  owners cannot claim they do not know its against the law. To receive the
justice conditional pardon the owners businesses have to not object against  seizure of the ctft-products, if they do they would have been taken to
> court. However, all business owners choose for the option to cooperate and not object in order to get the pardon.

REPORT SWEEP CURACAO
(Wednesday 11th February 2009 & Friday 13th February 2009)
On February 11th and in addition on Friday the 13th February first time ever anti
counterfeit sweep actions were orchestrated on the tropical island Curacao, part of the
Netherlands Antilles.
The actions were organized by DISOSA BPS Group Ltd a Anti Counterfeit organization
with close ties to SNBREACT the European Anti- counterfeiting network. On first day of
the sweep actions there were so many products seized that additional warehousing and
transport had to be arranged by the local authorities.
February Wednesday 11th 2009:
First day of the sweep in which all mayor brands were participating, armed customs
officers, district attorney officers and a judge, were pro active during the sweep. On the
first day there was full focus on FMCG. There were complaints about counterfeit
products availability from Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Sara Lee and many others.
Seized were counterfeited bath soap, shampoo, baby products, shoe polish and much
more of similar product types.
February Friday 13th 2009:
On the second day there was focus on seizing fake fashion brand products. The amount
expected and pre monitored was huge. The expectation proved to be right … In the
downtown center of Willemstad, (capital city Curacao) about 150m3 was taken out of
20-2-2009
2
different retail locations. Streets were blocked by customs officers and traffic police was
mobilized to arrange traffic. Dutch border patrol police was called in to assist in the
operation. Some stores were sealed off by the customs as a near 80 to 90 percent of there
collections was found to be counterfeited products of mayor brands such as.
(According to information received Thursday February 19th ’09, from customs final measurement,
Seized is 157.5m3)
Press conference:
On Friday 13th a press conference was held by the District attorney office, Customs and
DISOSA for the press. Beside local press & TV, the Dutch radiostation“Wereldomroep”,
the Dutch newspaper “Volkskrant”, press from Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname and other
Caribbean press were present.
Here it was explained what, how and why the operation had taken place. It was also
announced that similar actions would continue as long as counterfeit would be detected.
Friday and Saturday all newspapers gave front page attention to the event. In addition the
BP Council (www.bpcouncil.com) will report on the sweep.
Complaints & destruction:
All locations at which products were seized have not filed complaints against government
or DISOSA BPS for its seize actions. Thursday the 19th all seized products will be
destroyed by local law enforcement authorities lead by the district attorney office.
Follow up sweep:
A follow up sweep, to be able to measure results and confirm the continued plan for
crack down on counterfeit products is planned for 6 to 8 weeks from now. All brands that
did not participate (in this sweep), than have a choice to participate.
Next Area’s:
The sweep as orchestrated now will be copied for the island St.Maarten(Dutch side) and
Aruba. The island of St Maarten clean sweep is planned for April/May 2009, Aruba
May/June 2009. Suriname, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago are
scheduled afterwards.

Domazlice, Czech Republic -

, France - December 18 2008

Case report:
This case corresponds to a matter KAWASAKI vs MOTORSPEED in which our Frence partner was requested to draft a C&D letter.

Napoli, Italy - December 23 2008

Case report:
23-12-2008 14:12 RAR
Detention made by the Customs of Naples concerning about 70.000 stickers reproducing Spider-Man character coming from China.
We received the picutures with the request of a technical expertise.
Marvel confirmed the goods are fake and an expertise was filed.

, The Netherlands - December 08 2008

Case report:
DELFT -  Upon request of our investigators the Police in the Hague has seized large quantities of counterfeit goods in a self-storage warehouse in Delft. The value of the seized garments is over 150.000 euro. The Police arrested two defendants. The investigation is still ongoing.warehouse

Bogorodica, Macedonia - June 23 2008

Case report:
A seizure of 18 ton counterfeited ARIEL washing powder was made by the Macedonian Customs in Bogorodica
at the border between Macedonia and Greece on 23.06.2008.
The shipment came from China and was destined for the Macedonian market.
Both the apparel of the packaging as the performed analyzes of the detergent
confirmed the counterfeit nature of the goods.

Guimarães, Portugal - July 24 2008

Case report:
01-08-2008 17:09

Important and huge operation made by Brigada Fiscal of Porto in a factory up in the North of Portugal. More than 1,000,000 of labels, packaging boxes, printing material, card labels, plastic bags, logos, transfers, etc were seized. These items would be used in plain textil goods and sold with the brands on them not only in the Portuguese but also to the European market.

Prague, Czech Republic - April 11 2008

Case report:
10-06-2008 7:20

On 4 April 2008 thousands of goods were seized during long prepared raid in Prague open-air market in Czech Republic. The action was operated by over 250 officers for two days.

Luxembourg, Europe - April 22 2008

Case report:
Positive development: The Advocate General Colomer filed an Opinion about EC Regulation 1383/2003 (Reg.) which is favorable to right holders, on 8 April 2008.

According to the Advocate General´s advice to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), rights holders are entitled to rely on information provided by Customs under Reg. (which is only applicable on suspicions of counterfeit) to fight illicit parallel imports.
In this case, Belgium Customs had taken action ex officio and suspended the release of a shipment of pharmaceuticals, which they suspected of being counterfeits. The right-holder Beecham was allowed to investigate samples in order to identify whether or not the goods were fake. Beecham came to the conclusion that the goods were genuine, but had originally been placed on the market in Ethiopia to be distributed further down the chain to the Ethiopian army.
The Reg. could therefore no longer be applied, because Article 3 paragraph 1 Reg. stipulates that the Reg. shall not apply to goods bearing a trademark with the consent of the trademark holder.
Beecham started court proceedings in order to obtain amongst others a civil seizure order. The parallel importer opposes the claims as its was of the opinion that the information obtained from Belgium Customs was used for other purposes than allowed by the Reg.
These proceedings resulted in 4 questions referred to the ECJ by the Belgium Court: 2 questions concerned the legitimacy of the measures of the Belgium Customs authorities and 2 questions concerned the use of information, obtained on the basis of the Reg. and used against parallel imports. Below I will only draw attention to the last questions. For the advice of Colomer on the first and second question I refer to his opinion, which can be found on http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en (case number C-132/07).
The parallel importer had argued that Beecham should not have been allowed to use the information which it had been able to obtain from the samples presented to Beecham by Customs under Regulation 1383/2003, as evidence in infringement proceedings relating to parallel imports. The parallel importer bases its argument on Article 12 of the Reg. This article stipulates that the "article 9 paragraph 2 and 3 Reg.- information" shall only be used for the purposes specified by the Reg., which means combating counterfeit (and not opposing parallel imports).
Advocate General Colomer disagrees. In his view, the Reg. cannot be interpreted as prohibiting the use by rights owners of information provided to them under the Reg. (i.e. Articles 9(2) and 9(3) of the Reg.), for the purpose of opposing parallel imports.
Now we have to hope that the ECJ will follow this advice of Colomer, which is often the case. We learn this hopefully in the near future.
******

Algeciras, Spain - March 14 2008

Case report:
Spain: Algeciras Customs

The Spanish Tax Agency, in collaboration with Guardia Civil of Algeciras Customs, has seized more than 230.000 counterfeit goods. Algeciras Customs has confiscated six containers arriving from Yantián (China) and destined to Marocco. The value of the seized products is estimated by Tax Agency Experts in 100 million Euro. According to the information released by Spanish Tax Agency, the involved brands are Adidas, Asics, Reebok, Guess, Puma, Nike, Convers, D.G., Levis, Lacoste, Guess, Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Tous, Chloé, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tous, Converse, Navigare, Daniel Smith, Calvin Klein, Polo, Boss, Delberto, Quick Silver, Boccodo, Paul & Shark, Rado, Tissot, Armani, Marlboro, Gulso Shark, G-Star and  Paul Shark.

Right owners have been notified in accordance with Council Regulation (EC ) 1383/2003. SNB REACT has informed the members for which we are managing customs applications for Spain.

, The Netherlands -

Case report:
29-02-3008
The Dutch authorities seized over 25.000 bottles of various fragrances. The investigation is still ingoing and more seizures can be expected.

Rozvadov -Sv.Katerina, Czech Republic - February 13 2008

Case report:
21-02-2008

On 13 February 2008 thousands of goods were seized during raid in Czech Republic. Local customs, Trade inspection in cooperation with SNB-REACT took action at German border markets runned mainly by Vietnamese citizens. The market contains of 200 stands mostly full of counterfeits. The first day was opened and controlled the first 35 stands. The Customs will be present for approximately  one month controlling the rest of stands and sale in the whole market place.

Rimini, Italy - December 17 2007

Case report:
Following investigations conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Savona, after  a seizure with a retailer in Savona on 5 November and a seizure in Milan the 29th of November, the GdF carried out another seizure on 7, 10 and 11 December in Rimini.

The GdF, assisted by our investigator, seized about 79.000 products like t-shirts, shorts, wallets, scarves, stickers, pins, key rings, patches and flags bearing different trademarks.

All these products were produced directly by company and stocked in two different warehouses; moreover one of the warehouse wasn't officially registered.

Podgorica- Montenegro, Macedonia -

Case report:

On 16.06.2007 the Custom officers in Bar, Montenegro made a seizure of 14304 sneakers with the trademark Puma, coming from China. The Customs suspected the goods were counterfeit and informed Puma of this seizure. Puma informed SNB REACT BALKAN of this seizure, and with this we succesfully expended our services on the BALKAN region. The counterfeit nature of these goods was confirmed, and the approval for destruction based on silent confirmation, was given by the Custom Authorities in Montenegro.
The destruction should take place in the near future.

Lisboa, Portugal - February 26 2007

Case report:
Following 2006 operation in Ante Comercio Internacional warehouse performed by Brigada Fiscal where almost 150.000 perfumes were seized, again this year, this company which was under surveillance, was targetet and a second successful raid was performed and almost 15.000 perfumes were confiscated.

Lisbon, Portugal - December 04 2007

Case report:
Following 2006 operation in Ante Comercio Internacional warehouse performed by Brigada Fiscal where almost 100.000 perfumes were seized, again this year, this company under surveillance, was targetet and a second successful raid was performed and almost 15.000 perfumes were confiscated.

Porto, Portugal - December 04 2007

Case report:
Successful shoe factory raid performed by ASAE Porto. More than 10.000 pair of Lacoste shoes and accessories were seized in this company "Calçado Renascimento".

Gevgeljia, Macedonia -

Case report:
Important Court decision in Macedonia following a customs seizure.
The customs in Bogorodica made a seizure of 1.280 sneakers bearing Puma TM's on 13.02.07.
The consignee opposed to the destruction and the case was taken to court.

On 30.11.2007 the court ruled in favor of PUMA. he TM's of Puma (leaping cat and form strip) were printed on the shoes, using a different name,
In appearance the shoes as such were not close to an "original" Puma sneaker, nevertheless the trade marks were and the Court considered this as an infringement of Puma's rights.

The sneakers need to be destroyed by Atlanta dooel, and they have been forbidden in the future to import any goods bearing the identical or similar TM's of Puma,
They also need to publish the court deciscion in papers.
The costs for this case should be payed by Atlanta, the Court will specify the amount. 

Milan, Italy - November 28 2007

Case report:
Following the investigation conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Savona, after  a seizure in a retailer in Savona on 5 November, the GdF carried out a big operation in Milano, on the premises of the wholesales company. The GdF, assisted by our investigator, seized 26768 products like scarves, stickers, pins, key rings, patches and flags bearing different trademarks.
The GdF retrieved also the invoices of the distributors.

Madrid, Spain - November 27 2007

Case report:
Half a million pieces of counterfeit products confiscated and 23 persons detained.
AThe community police as well as the Guardia Civil of Madrid disclosed a pyramide criminal organisation occupied in the production and sales of counterfeit goods. The machinery found was impressive: sufficient to produce 21000 counterfeit products per hour. The value of the 0,5 million products found was estimaed at 15 million Euro.
The operation was called ' Operacion Glamour'.
De detained persons are from Senegal, Marroco, China, Bangladesh and Spain.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands - November 27 2007

Case report:
SNB-REACT team has been extended with two new brand protection managers:

FOR CZECH REPUBLIC-SLOVAKIA: Mrs Marketa Shubik, mshubik@snbreact.org
Marketa is trademark attorney and based in Prague.

FOR SPAIN; Mrs Nuria Abella Mendez, nabella@snbreact.org
Nuria is an exoerienced IP lawyer and based in Madrid.

SNB-REACT has now almost accomplished its pan European coverage. Either through internal resources (own employed SNB-REACT personell) or through external partners with whom we have agreed a partnership with favourable terms for SNB-REACT members.

Rotterdam, The Netherlands - November 21 2007

Case report:
The FIOD-ECD has seized the products on two locations in Rotterdam The Netherlands and notified SNB-REACT.
The seizure exceeds more than 45.000 pieces. SNB-REACT will file a criminal complaint on behalf of its members. The defendant is linked to Turkish networks who import and distribute counterfeit goods on a very large scale in The Netherlands. The investigation against this network is still ongoing.

In 2006 we have increased the number of removed ads by 144% thanks to:
- Portugal joining us in the program
- removing ads from eBay worldwide
- our increased expertise

For 2007 our goal is to continue this rising number of removals by:
- creating an Internet Monitoring tool
- expanding the Internet Monitoring Program to Asia

[17 january 2007]

The annual assembly of SNB-REACT will be held in the afternoon on 15th of March 2007 in Amsterdam. Followed by a product identification training session for the Dutch customs and Economic Police on 16th of March.
[7 December 2006]

Important provisional decision about simplified procedure and demurrage costs

On 22 August 2006 the summary judge of the Rotterdam District Court has rendered a decision in a case that was initiated by 15 SNB-REACT members against shipping agent China Shipping (LJN: AY6661, 264805/KG ZA 06-591).

Background
In this case the Dutch customs have under EC Regulation 1383/2003 suspended release or detained 56.000 counterfeit goods from various shipments, in the period of May 2005 and April 2006. The right holders concerned have obtained written or presumed agreement to abandon the goods for destruction, in accordance with the simplified procedure of article 11 EC Regulation 1383/2003. The right holders requested China Shipping to surrender the goods for destruction. China Shipping refused to release the goods as long as the demurrage costs had not been compensated. As the right holders are not liable for these costs, the right holders started summary proceedings asking the summary judge to order China Shipping to surrender the goods. China Shipping filed a counter claim asking for compensation of its demurrage costs. 

Decision
The claims of the right holders and China Shipping were both rejected. However, the summary judged gave a positive opinion for the right holders about the demurrage costs issue. He confirmed explicitly that the right holders are not liable for these costs. Although the summary judged did not feel he had to rule on this point; he noted that the demurrage costs should eventually have to be paid by the assignor of China Shipping. It is therefore self evident that shipping agent approaches the consignee and/or the assignor for those costs instead of the right holders. The Regulation 1383/2003 articles 11 jo 6 does not leave the room, according to the provisional consideration of the judge, to grant the transporters a claim for demurrage costs.

Furthermore, the summary judge ruled that those goods which are not covered by a clear trademark registration (for example camera bags bear TM of aides; shirts bearing GM trademarks etc...) are not covered by the Regulation 1383/2003 and cannot be considered to be surrendered for destruction in the framework of the Regulation. China Shipping was entitled to oppose against it in order to safeguard the interests of its clients. This is a consequence of the wording of articles 1 job 2 par 1 sub a of the Regulation

Article 11 of the Regulation can be applied directly according to the summary judge and does not require specific national legislation. The claim of SNB-REACT to surrender the other goods for destruction which are covered by the definition mentioned above has been rejected. The matter proved to be too complicated for a provisional judgment. The judge concluded wrongly that the conditions of article 11 were not met, and therefore rejected the claim for release of the goods. Parties have not lodged an appeal and have settled the matter in the meanwhile.

[16 October 2006]

The new service launched by React Italy in January is proving to be very successful both in terms of interest from the member companies and in terms of results.

We started off with a few hearings in January and have now reached an average of 15 hearings per month, involving quite a number of member companies.

In a good percentage of cases the judges accept the substitution of the person who was originally summoned with our experts, therefore relieving companies of the burden of having to send their employees instead.

Our expertise team consists of 4 people who cover different Italian Regions and are therefore able to avoid extensive travelling which means cutting costs for the companies. One of them is a lawyer and handles the more complex cases, whilst the more straightforward ones are divided among the other three free lance experts. Where possible, the fees are also shared among companies in order to further reduce expenses.

[31 May 2006]

In the past weeks tens of thousands of textiles products were seized in the Netherlands. Local police forces of Nijmegen and Amersfoort assisted SNB-REACT greatly by taking action against Turkish importers. The importation from fake goods produced in Turkey by Turkish immigrants in The Netherlands is a trend which is ongoing for years now. Particularly the Fashion industry is suffering from this. SNB-REACT filed criminal complaints and civil action for damages will be initiated.

After 2,5 years Paolo Balistrieri left SNB-REACT to become Brand Protection Manager Italy with Louis Vuitton. Paolo will be replaced by Fabrizio Cacciatore from the 1st of June onwards. Fabrizio already worked for REACT on a free lance basis. He will concentrate on the operational work of REACT: inspections, investigations, witness hearing and alike.

[29 May 2006]

REACT Italy has set up a team of brand identification experts spread throughout the country. The experts are trained by the brand representatives and kept updated though an internal protected brand identification site. REACT Italy has set up this service for its members to enable them to follow up in Court the numerous notifications initiated by the Guardia di Finanza, Customs authorities, Carabinieri and all other law enforcement officers. In Court the experts can assist one or more brands owners at the same time and provide witness statements.

With this team of experts, REACT responds to a need for companies to keep up with the high number of requests from enforcement officers as well as the judiciary. The costs of sending in house experts (or attorneys) to provide witness statements can be enormous. By bundling these efforts, REACT manages first of all to reduce costs for brands owners more than significantly; secondly it provides the opportunity for brands owners to follow up the demands of the officials in a consistent manner, and thirdly, the officers and judiciary can be supported more swiftly. The costs savings are realized because of the following reasons:

- the not for profit nature of REACT Italy
- reduction of travel expenses because the experts are located throughout the country
- by representing more companies in a single case, the fees for the experts are shared.

Members interested in this cost efficient service, please contact info@snbreact.org or glaviani@snbreact.org, or 00-39-02-8050.9450

[27 January 2006]

In a procedure launched by SNB-REACT on behalf of Polo Ralph Lauren and Timberland against Bakkersport (a former Intersport retailer), the District Court of The Haque rendered a most favourable judgment. One of the owners of Bakkersport, had signed a ce ase and desist letter in 2000 to settle a case. The cease and desist letter covered all members of SNB-REACT. A few years after, Bakkersport again infringed rights of (other) members of SNB-REACT: Polo by Ralph Lauren and Timberland. Bakkersport claimed  that the cease and desist letter was not valid (next to the fact that they contested the infringement entirely) because of the fact that it was not signed on behalf of the infringing retail company but by a natural person (by chance the owner and direc tor of the company!). The Court considered otherwise, in our favour and did apply the penalties incurred through the cease and desist letter. This decision is most supportive to the SNB-REACT strategy to obtain many generally formu  lated cease and desist letters from potential counterfeit traders.

[7 November 2005]

Since a few months, the simplified procedure to follow up a customs detention, is being applied in Portugal as well. SNB-REACT has already applied this procedure, whereby the importer or declarant surrenders the goods voluntarily for destruction, at num eours occassions. In almost all cases the procedure went smoothly without significant opposition. Other EU countries like Italy and Poland which are not yet applying the simplified procedure of article 11 EU Regulation 1383/2003 have also indicated to s eriously consider to introduce the procedure shortly. This will be a great efficiency improvement for the anti counterfeiting fight.[7 November 2005]

The Rotterdam customs have stopped 60 containers completely loaded with counterfeited sports wear. Many brands are concerned. The goods originate from an unkown exporter in China and are destined for an unknown trader in Russia. SNB-REACT has taken up t he matter. In order to get the confiscation and destruction of the goods, the simplified procedure will be followed. To trace the actual source and destination, a criminal complaint was filed. The Dutch authorities could however not find enough informat ion to start actions against Dutch criminals, that is why the matter has been referred back for civil follow up.
[10 September 2005]

The internet programme managed by Liselotte Bakker (the Netherlands) and
Maddalena Bassi (Italy). Currently, 20 of our members are participating in the
programme. We have removed 4143 advertisements; 5 commercial sites; and 71
criminal and civil cases were initiated against commercial sites.
Members seem to be pleased with this new service which has become an unevitable
tool in the anti counterfeiting fight for SNB-REACT in a short time period.

[10 August 2005]

Hungarian Customs, in cooperation with our partner organization VSZA, carried out an  outstanding seizure in three shops selling counterfeit jewels bearing various brands, among them Bulgari and Gucci.
The operation took place in the tourist area of Lake Balaton, in the towns of  Zalaegerszeg, Keszthely and Hévíz.
Some hundreds items, including bracelets, sleeve-links, rings and earrings were confiscated.
Particular praise goes to Hungarian Customs, who are among the most active ones in Central Europe and among the only ones undertaking operations outside their border areas (actions are intitiated by them and then carried out in cooperation with Police).
[21 June 2005]

At the external European borders many consignments of Chinese exporters are being stopped by EU customs. Resulting the actions by European customs, very often solid information about the Chinese exporter becomes avaialable to the rights owner. SNB-REACT now wants to alert the right Chinese customs officer in the most direct way of the Chinese exporter sending consignments of fake goods to Europe. This in order to enable Chinese customs to intercept the exports before departure! That is why we entered into a partnership with a Chinese consultancy called Sunfaith.

The service is  simple: SNB-REACT prepares a file with all information available regarding intercepted consignments of importation:
- official statements from the customs authorities with the name of the consignor and consignee
- short description of the legal actions followed
- quantities and type of products concerned
- digital images of the products
Charge of SNB-REACT to the rights owner concerned: € 150

Such a file will be transferred to the Chinese partner of SNB-REACT; Sunfaith. Sunfaith is a private consultancy with branches all over China.
Sunfaith will transfer the file with accompanying explanation in Chinese when needed to the responsible customs officer of the port of exportation (or any other port which might be chosen by the identified exporter).
Charge of Sunfaith to the rights owner concerned: € 150

In this way solid evidence is being submitted at low costs to exact;y the rights officer.

Many rights owners have their own network and structure to use the information gathered in Europe and inform the relevant customs officers themselves. However, just as many rights owner lack such a structure and at the end of the day, most of the European cases are not being followed up.
[10 June 2005]

SNB-React Netherlands has recently launched the number 0900-NEPPERS (0900-6377377). This number has been brought into existence for
                reporting counterfeit sales.

SNB-React noticed a need for an accessible portal for reporting counterfeit goods. Therefore we created a 0900 number with the catching name 'NEPPERS' (a popular Dutch word for counterfeit goods). We decided to charge 50 eurocents a minute. This to avoid unserious messages/reportings.

A reporting will be handled by a standard procedure. In general we can say that reporter has to give answer to the who, when, where and what questions. On the basis of these data we will start an investigation.
The number can be reached anytime.
[10 June 2005]

During an inspection by the Lithaunian Police squad large quantities of counterfeit goods were seized. Not all the goods have been inspected yet, but so far they seized 194 trousers and 30 suits NIKE,
429 trousers PUMA, 5 trousers REEBOK, 16 suits ADIDAS and 908 watches ROLEX.  These goods are coming from China and destined for Vilnius. The goods were stopped, because the owner failed to declare the goods to customs. So besides counterfeiting the authorities will also prosecute the defendant for smuggling. This case is considered important because it is the first police action in Lithuania! Main reason for SNB-REACT to start in Lithuania is to increase police activities which seems to work. [13 May 2005]

Latvia clearly take the problem of counterfeiting seriously. They have decided to install a new specialised police unit to fight counterfeiting and piracy. The budget they created leaves room for 20 new officers!, which can be considered a lot for such a small country. The officers are now being recruited; first results are expected in June of this year. We expect that our anti counterfeiting efforts in Latvia will be significantly improved with the new colleagues.

Following the EU Enforcement Directive, the Benelux Trademark Act will be changed. The enforcement remedies will be improved according to the provisions of the EU enforcement directive. A very important improvement will be the conditions put on claims to recover profits made by infringers.
In the current law, the damaged rights owner must prove bad faith of the infringer before the profits made can be recovered. SNB-REACT was fiercely against this provision and, supported by the text of the enforcement directive, we managed to convince the Ministries of Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg.

In the revised Benelux Trademark Act, the bad faith notion does not reappear. The new condition for such claims to be granted is that the infringer knew or should have known. Obviously much easier to prove.
The new law will enter into force April 2006.

The SNB-REACT members were sent a proposal for monitoring The Internet on trade in counterfeit goods.
SNB-REACT concentrates on the national auction sites by periodical checks as well as the commercial sites which we will come across during our Internet searches.
Countries covered: the countries in which SNB-REACT has facilities to monitor the Internet: The Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Baltic States. When the operation is running smoothly, we might extend the services to other European countries. [5 April 2005]

March 2005, SNB-REACT started its activities in Lithuania. The objective is
- to follow up customs actions, assist them with all practical issues related to the bordermeasures, and;
- we want to initate police actions. So far police actions against the flourishing trade in counterfeited goods in Lithuania are non-existant!
Customs enforcement in Lithuania is pretty simple; the simplified procedure in the EU Regulation of article 11 is being applied. This means that through quick settlements cases can be resolved easily.

The police actions have to come off the ground. Police has agreed to cooperate with the initiative taken by SNB-REACT.[1 March 2005]

In the annual Assembly of 28 January 2005 the following decisions were made
- provisional approval of the annual account 2004. Alllocation of the likely profits ( since 2004 has only just ended, some minor changes are likely) of about € 16.000 to the assets.
- The fees 2005 were approved (to be found elsewhere on this site)
- Budget 2005 was approved
The members agreed with the gradual expansion process.
SNB-REACT will draft a proposal for a new service: Internet monitoring
The board will be extended. [28 January 2005]

In 2004 much more seizures were made by SNB-REACT : 1570 compared to 1100 in 2003!. Main reasons are the geographical extension and the increased efficiency of the network. The number of products decreased! It must be said that the 2003 figures were flattered because of the enormous large number of toys which came in during a limited period. This caused absolute records in seizure figures.
Financially, SNB-REACT managed well within its budget. Costs were kept reasonably under control; due to the increase in cases the income grew accordingly. In this way, SNB-REACT managed again to keep the fees at the same level. [3 January 2005]

Brigada Fiscal one of most active police forces in Europe on IPR
The SNB-REACT activities in Portugal are very succesful! Since the start – February 2004 – 100 actions and more than 300.000 products seized.
The Brigada Fiscal can be considered one of the most active police forces on anti counterfeiting. This week again they seized more than 10.000 products  Together with our REACT representative, Paulo Pereira, they are investigating warehouses, productions units and taking rapid action. [23 August 2004]

  

This summer we noticed that the handbags of Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Chanel and Christian Dior Couture are popular in the counterfeiting business. Large quantities were intercepted at many occassions. One of them was an interception at Rotterdam seaport on 20 July. A container coming from China, via Rotterdam with destination Belgium was loaded with 40.000 products. [1 August 2004]

The new anti counterfeiting EU regulation entered into force the 1st of July. One of the most important new elements is the simplified procedure in article 11. According to this provision, Member States may simplify the procedure following a customs intervention in two ways. First if the rights owner, applicant, submits a written undertaking of the declarant, holder or owner of the goods to abandon the products for destruction. Secondly, when the delcalrant, holder or owner of the goods has not specifically opposed against destruction, the agreement is presumed to be accepted!. The first option was in fact standard practice in The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries already for a long time. The second option is new and SNB-REACT has experienced its first cases. Again an important step to facilitate rights owners, customs and in fact also other parties involved in the anti counterfeiting operation. [29 July 2004]

As a result of the members questionnaire, expansion of SNB-REACT service to Poland, Spain and Serbia – Montenegro will be explored
A questionnaire of SNB-REACT among its members resulted in 30 replies indicating a clear signal: the members want SNB-REACT to expand its services to other European countries. The low costs for standard type of actions;  rapid follow up and concise reporting as well as the support we provide to enforcement agencies, is apparently somehting which is appreciated by our members. The responses learned that many companies want us to set up an operation in Poland. Furthermore, it was surprising to see that Spain is a country where many companies lack a good enforcement structure. Another country which was top on the list is Serbia-Montenegro. The secretariat has started exploring the possibilities in these three countries. We would be more than happy to learn from our members any good experiences with certain service providers. [7 July 2004]

Malta has registered its biggest seizure of cigarettes of all times: three forty footers fully loaded containers containing 9,333,000 'Marlboro'Red cigarettes and 18,020,000 'Gauloises' Blondes, in transit from Malta to Algiers. Click here to see the photos [7 April 2004]

 

The annual assembly of SNB-REACT will be held the 5th of March in
Amsterdam. It will be combined with a training session for the Dutch customs and Economic Police. [5 March 2004]

The new operation from SNB-REACT with CIPR has performed its first actions. With a distributor of airfresheners for cars, significant quantities of airfresheners bearing the brandnames Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari, Opel, Volkswagen and Harley Davidson were found and seized. Click here to see the photos. Other actions involving fake sunglasses, stationery and garments are pending. [21 January 2004]