Additional tools
Defend your rights
Customs administrations are in the frontline to enforce intellectual property rights at the EU borders. In order to effectively carry out their task, customs need the active engagement of the right-holders themselves. Co-operation is the most effective weapon: thanks to the information provided by the right-holders, customs may identify more easily goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights (IPR) and take the necessary action.
As a right-holder, you can defend your rights by asking customs to detain goods found to be suspected of infringing IPR.
In order to do so, you should lodge an application for action with the competent customs department
requesting them to take action. The request for assistance is on national or Union rights basis. Requests for assistance deposited within the framework of certain “Union rights”, when deposited in one of the EU Member States, may be granted the same legal status in any other Member State.
What exactly should you do?
The following manual, written in a question-and-answer format, explains the procedure for submitting an application for action, one on the procedure for national applications, one on the procedure for Community applications.
Manual for applications for customs action
You can find the forms for submitting an application for action in all EU official languages and the forms for notifying customs with specific information or general trends on the 'Forms for rights-holders' page.