Дозажигался…

Появившиеся на рынке Ставрополя поддельные зажигалки Cricket изъяты у частного предпринимателя.

Проверку бизнесмена инициировали ставропольские таможенники, к которым обратился представитель компании Swedish Match, являющейся производителем брендовых зажигалок. В ходе рейда выяснилось, что у бизнесмена нет никаких документов от правообладателя, дающих право заниматься реализацией этой продукции. В свое оправдание он заявил, что приобрел товар у оптового продавца в Ростове-на-Дону и о его контрафактности не знал. Между тем менее года назад этот человек уже привлекался к административной ответственности по статье 14.10 КоАП за незаконное использование товарного знака. Тогда у него было изъято 5500 штук зажигалок. В этот раз товар изъят в количестве 6000 штук.

Компания Swedish Match всерьез обеспокоена появлением на российских рынках поддельных аналогов своей продукции. По словам российского представителя компании Вячеслава Полнежаева, производители фальсифицированной продукции не могли остаться в стороне от столь обширного рынка и предлагают покупателям кустарные копии китайского производства, которые, помимо того, что незаконно используют товарный знак и не сертифицированы, опасны для здоровья потребителей.

Task 14. Discuss the statements in buzz-groups. Do you agree or disagree?

1. Globalization damages local goods, services and cultures.

2. Globalization raises people’s living standards.

3. Most manufacturers of top brands do not wish to produce their goods in low-cost countries because they believe that it will damage their brand image.

4. Consumers no longer care about where the products are manufactured.

Task 15. Write a short report on the result of your discussion.

Text V

Pre-reading

Task 1. Translate the following words.

English Russian

combat …

… почтовая пересылка

traffic …

enforcement …

… законодательство

interception …

consignment …

… взрывчатые вещества

… радиоактивные вещества

valuables …

Task 2. Look up the pronunciation of the words in the dictionary:

era, virtual, superstore, procedures, obstacle, techniques.

Task 3. Answer the questions: What prohibited goods do you know? Why are they prohibited for bringing in or taking out?

Task 4. Give synonyms to the phrase “to carry out Customs control”.

Counterfeiting, the Internet and the postal dilemma

Setting the scene

In an era of virtual worlds where everything is just one click away, the flow of postal packages is intensifying with the development of internet sales, and this is not making the task of Customs services any easier, particularly when it comes to combating counterfeiting and piracy.

The Internet is fast becoming the world’s biggest superstore, but at the same it has turned into a shop window and vehicle for counterfeit goods. Hundreds of millions of packages are transported by the postal services each year, and an increasing number of them contain counterfeit or pirated goods. In fact, according to the WCO Secretariat’s statistics, between 30% and 40% of all cases dealt with by Customs in the area of IPR enforcement involve postal traffic.

This is not a coincidence and there are many reasons for this: international legislation which is not robust enough and is ill-suited to the situation; the colossal growth in postal traffic; the fact that it is virtually impossible to conduct risk analyses; the long and often costly procedures that rights holders have to undertake, bearing in mind the small number of items generally intercepted in each individual postal traffic seizure; problems in identifying where responsibilities lie; and a host of other problems.

The result is that when Customs administrations conduct their controls, the only effective tools at their disposal are a sharp blade and a roll of sticky tape!

Cracks in international legislation

International postal traffic is governed by two international instruments:

- World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

- The Universal Postal Union’s Universal Postal Convention (UPC).

Article 60 of the TRIPS Agreement, concerning “De Minimis” imports, provides that “Members may exclude from the application of the above provisions small quantities of goods of a non-commercial nature contained in travelers’ personal luggage or sent in small consignments”. In addition, Article 51 of the Agreement provides that there is an obligation to control goods only at importation, and if they infringe a trademark or copyright. This means that under the terms of these two Articles there is no obligation to subject small consignments to controls, controls are not mandatory at exportation, and there are restrictions on the scope of the controls limiting them to trademarks and copyright only.

The Universal Postal Convention stipulates, in Article 5, that “… a postal item shall remain the property of the sender under it is delivered to the rightful owner, except when the item has been seized in pursuance of the legislation of the country of origin or destination …”, while Article 25 prohibits, subject to some exceptions, the transportation of certain goods by post, namely: narcotics; live animals; explosive substances; radioactive materials; immoral articles; and bank notes and other valuables. Counterfeit or pirated goods have not been included in the list of prohibited products!

Even more obstacles along the road

In addition to the legislative shortcomings and the fact that it is impossible to use targeting techniques, there are two other major obstacles hindering Customs actions.

The first obstacle concerns the difficulty of taking legal action in cases where counterfeit goods have been detained. Legal proceedings are costly for rights holder given the limited number of counterfeit or pirated items contained in a postal consignment. Doing so would cost the rights holder more than he had lost as a result of the counterfeiting, particularly as there is no simplified procedure, at the international level, for the rapid and low-cost destruction of counterfeit goods.

The second and principal obstacle relates to the quantity of packages handled by postal services. As an example, every night as many packages pass through Zaventem Airport in Brussels (Belgium) as there are Customs officers in Europe. Faced with tons and tons of small postal items, limited staff especially at night, and an almost nil possibility to do any effective targeting, the only option open to Customs is to physically inspect goods. This becomes an impossible mission due to the sheer volumes of postal traffic.

Working on the text

Task 5. Match left and right.

1. package a) lot

2. sales b) duty

3. responsibility c) the one who possesses something

4. agreement d) something that you must do as part of your job or duty

5. obligation e) something wrapped in paper packed in a box and then sent by mail or delivered

6. consignment f) official document promising to do something

7. owner g) the total number of products sold during a particular period of time

8. shortcoming h) fault, weakness

Task 6. Define from what verbs these words are derived.

development legislation administration

sales analyses agreement

enforcement seizure provision

importation exportation restriction

Task 7. Use prefixes “dis-”, “il-”, “im-”, “un-” to create negative forms of adjectives.

legal, possible, licit, satisfied, honest, successful, patient, practical

Task 8. Give synonyms to the following words.

- task - to conduct

- to combat - to intercept

- to deal with - obligation

- legislation - goods

Task 9. Give antonyms to the following words.

- virtual - responsibility

- development - commercial

- growth - infringement

- international - prohibition

Task 10. Answer the following questions.

1. What is the reason for intensifying the flow of postal packages?

2. What has the Internet turned into?

3. What is the percentage of postal IP infringements in the number of all cases dealt with by Customs?

4. What are the reasons for such a high percentage?

5. How is International postal traffic governed by?

6. What do Articles 51 and 60 of the TRIPS agreement provide?

7. What does the Universal Postal Convention stipulate?

8. What are two more obstacles hindering Customs actions?

Task 11. What things are prohibited for the transportation by post?

Task 12. Translate the texts into English.

a) Сотрудниками Минераловодской таможни пресечена пересылка по почте наркотиков. Житель города отправил украинскому адресату средства гигиены. В ценной бандероли находились два куска мыла и детский крем. Вот только тюбик из-под крема оказался упаковкой для бумажного контейнера, в котором обнаружено “вещество растительного происхождения серо-зеленого цвета”. По данным экспертизы, в соседнюю республику направлялся гашиш. Вес обнаруженного таможенниками наркотика – 10,83 грамма.

б) Польские таможенники конфисковали картину Огюста Ренуара стоимостью $350,000. Её пытались отправить в США в посылке, на которой было указано, что это работа небольшой ценности. Отправитель решил сэкономить, ведь за легальную пересылку ему пришлось бы заплатить $63,000.

Task 13. Read and translate the newspaper article concerning the problem with postal traffic in Russia.

Foreign-based Internet shopping sites are drawing increasing numbers of Russian consumers looking for deals, but as delays mount at the country’s notoriously inefficient postal service, many are finding that securing delivery of their items is no simple task.

Russian Post is nevertheless the only option for many people because it is much cheaper and parcels shipped using the service fall under different customs rules: Customers can ship items valued at up 10,000 rubles ($340) without paying a duty through Russian post, while the figure is only 5,000 through DHL and UPS.

Task 14. Discuss in “buzz groups” advantages and disadvantages of trading via the Internet.