Seized Products: What Do You Do Next?

Between September and December 2015, RT Media reported on 13 seizure and forfeiture orders that were issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), relating to 6 General Exclusion Orders (GEO) and affecting 17 companies.

A brief analysis of 337 investigations by the USITC reveals just how many GEOs and seizure and forfeiture orders have been issued:

It is interesting to note that of the 81 orders given on 8 key, 337 printer cartridge investigations, 59, or 73%, were issued, in 2015. Then, on December 18, 2015, a 337-TA-918 seizure and forfeiture order was issued just 3 months after the USITC granted the GEO! This indicates that the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (Customs) has become more proactive in 2015.

These facts may worry you. It is not only foreign companies exporting products to the US that are affected. Many of those receiving seizure and forfeiture orders are companies operating inside the USA.

So how can you be kept informed? How can you ensure that you and your business do not become a target by Customs? Obviously, your lawyers and your product designers play a key role. In most cases, lawyers only can help you reduce the cost of fighting a patent lawsuit, but your product designers should be your priority when you are going to develop your products at the very beginning.

Undoubtedly, being familiar with related patents is another important key strategy for your product designers. But how can they search the related patents efficiently?Patent-Smart.com, developed by Recycling Times Media and Innopat Intellectual Property Co. Ltd., provides an imaging patent service with fast-growing patent database and a smart, yet simple patent search function. In addition, hot legal news and professional legal articles will keep you updated with legal trends in imaging industry.

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