THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 608/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 concerning customs enforcement of intellectual property rights and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1383/2003(1), and in particular Article 6(1) thereof,
Whereas:
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1352/2013(2) established the application form provided for in Regulation (EU) No 608/2013 to be used for requesting that customs authorities take action with respect to goods suspected of infringing an intellectual property right (‘application form’).
The application form needs to be adapted to take account of the practical experience made in using that form as well as to ensure a trouble free transmission and exchange of information via the central database referred to in Article 31 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013.
Where an application is submitted after the customs authorities have suspended the release of or detained the goods at their own initiative, this should be indicated on the application form by the applicant.
By Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3), the term ‘Community trade mark’ was replaced in the Union legal order by the term ‘European Union trade mark’. The application form needs to be updated accordingly.
Where the applicant requests the use of the procedure for the destruction of goods in small consignments in accordance with Article 26 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, he should be able to specify whether he wishes that procedure to be used in all the Member States or in one or several specific Member States.
An applicant should be required to provide in the application form the names and addresses of involved companies and traders as that information is relevant to the customs authorities' analysis and assessment of the risk of infringement.
Taking into account that, in accordance with Article 31 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, all exchanges of data on decisions relating to applications and detentions between the Member States and the Commission are to be made via the central database of the Commission and that that database needs to be adjusted to the new application form, the amendments to Annexes I and III to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1352/2013 should apply from 15 May 2018.
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1352/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly.
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1352/2013 is amended as follows:
Annex I is replaced by the text set out in Annex I to this Regulation;
Annex III is amended in accordance with Annex II to this Regulation.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 15 May 2018.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 12 April 2018.
For the Commission
The President
Jean-Claude Juncker
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’. ANNEX I