Chapter I   General Provisions

Article 1.   These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Customs Law of the People's Republic of China so as to implement Customs protection of intellectual property rights and to promote economic, trade, science, technology and culture exchanges with foreign countries, and to safeguard the public interests.

Article 2.   Customs protection of intellectual property rights used in these Regulations refers to protection of the exclusive right to use a trademark, copyright and related rights, and patent right (referred hereinafter as "intellectual property rights") over imported or exported goods that are protected by laws and administrative regulations of the People's Republic of China.

Article 3.   The People's Republic of China forbids import or export of goods that infringe intellectual property rights.

Customs shall implement protection of intellectual property rights according to the relevant Chinese laws and provisions in these Regulations, and shall exercise their rights regulated in the Customs Law of the People's Republic of China.

Article 4.   Where the owner of intellectual property rights (referred hereinafter as "right owner") asks for Customs protection, he shall file an application for protective measures with Customs.

Article 5.   The consignees or consignors and their agents of imported or exported goods shall, in accordance with the related regulations, truthfully declare the status of the intellectual property rights of their goods to Customs and submit relevant certificates.

Article 6.   Customs shall keep the trade secrets of the relevant parties confidential when they take actions to protect intellectual property rights.

Chapter II   Recordation

Article 7.   The right owner may apply for recordal of his intellectual property rights with the Customs General Administration (CGA) according to the provisions of these Regulations. Those applying for the recordal shall submit a written application, which shall include:

(1) the name, registration place or nationality, etc. of the right owner;

(2) the title, content and relevant information of the intellectual property right;

(3) any licensing agreement signed for the intellectual property right;

(4) the name, producing place, the Customs located in importing or exporting place, importer, exporter, principle features, price and other information of the goods in which the right owner exercise their intellectual property right legitimately;

(5) the manufacturer, importer, exporter, the Customs located in importing or exporting place, principle features, price and other information of the goods which have been known to infringe the intellectual property right;

Any certificates should be submitted, if there is any.

Article 8.   The CGA shall make a decision whether to record the intellectual property rights within thirty business days from the date of receipt of all the application documents and notify the applicant accordingly in writing. Where the application is rejected, the CGA shall give the reasons.

In any of the following situations, the CGA shall reject the application:

(1) where the application documents are incomplete or invalid;

(2) where the applicant is not the right owner; or

(3) where the intellectual property right is no longer protected by laws and administrative regulations.

Article 9.   Where Customs discover that the right owner fails to truthfully provide the relevant information or documents in the application, the CGA may cancel his recordal.

Article 10.   The recordal shall be valid for ten years, counted from the date of the CGA's approval of the recordal.

Where the intellectual property rights are valid, the right owner may apply for a renewal within six months before the expiration of the recordal. And each renewal is valid for ten years.

The recordal shall become invalid if the right owner does not apply for a renewal when it expires or the intellectual property rights are no longer protected by laws and administrative regulations.

Article 11.   Where the recorded intellectual property rights have changed, the right owner shall go through the formalities of changing or canceling the recordal within thirty business days from the date of alternation of the recorded intellectual property rights.

Chapter III   Request for Detaining Suspected Infringing Goods

Article 12.   Where the right owner discovers that the goods suspected to infringe the intellectual property rights (referred hereinafter as "suspected goods") are about to be imported or exported, he may request the Customs located in importing or exporting place to detain the suspected goods.

Article 13.   Where the right owner requests Customs to detain the suspected goods, he shall submit an application and other certification documents, and provide evidences that are sufficient to prove the infringing facts obviously exist.

The application shall include:

(1) the names, registration places or nationalities, etc. of the rights owners;

(2) the titles, contents and other relevant information of the intellectual property rights;

(3) the names of the consignees and consignors of the suspected goods;

(4) the names, specifications etc. of the suspected goods;

(5) the possible Customs located in importing or exporting places, time and conveyances etc. of the suspected goods.

Where the goods are suspected to infringe the recorded intellectual property right, the application shall include the number of the recordal.

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