Customs supervision measures – effective protection of intellectual property rights

Once goods infringing intellectual property rights are released for free circulation, more than one entity is affected. To begin with, the biggest and most obvious damage is caused to the right owner or holder himself due to the fact that counterfeits on the market have a negative impact on sales, price, product position in the market. The buyer does not benefit in this situation as well, the acquired good does not meet quality or even safety standards, usually there is no possibility to take advantage of consumer protection. In addition, IP infringements distort competition, which means that honest and law-abiding manufacturers or traders are put in an unequal position. Finally, counterfeit and pirated goods market creates damage in terms of uncollected taxes as well.