Ukrainian Customs Seize 1.2 Million Euro 2012 Counterfeits

Since the beginning of this year, the Ukrainian customs authorities have seized 1.2 million items suspected of infringing intellectual property rights of Euro 2012, the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) championship taking place in Ukraine and Poland in June and July of 2012.

The customs authorities of the Odessa region performed the most recent seizure of 400,000 lighters.

A public database with the UEFA’s intellectual property in Ukraine is located on the Ukrainian PTO’s website in order to raise awareness of IP rights belonging to the UEFA and its commercial partners, who have registered hundreds of trademarks related to Euro 2012.

The customs officials from Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia have also recently participated in a three-day IP-protection workshop in Odessa, Ukraine.

The workshop took place on May 14-16 and was an opportunity for customs officials from different countries to exchange information and explore ways of protecting IP rights. As the Azerbaijani news agency Trend informed, this initiative is timely, considering the threat posed to IP rights ahead of the Euro 2012.

Author: Maya Kryvoshei, Aleksandra Pavlovic

For more information, please contact ukraine@petosevic.com.

Source: Ukrainian news portal Ukrinform.ua; Azerbaijani news agency Trend