CBP's Recordation Program | Customs & International Trade Law Blog

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg Business Group, Inc. (800-372-1033) Reproduced with permission. CBP’s Recordation Program

Editor’s Notes: Participation in CBP’s Recordation Program is likely one of the best methods for mental property rightsholders to guard their model on the border. When you took the time to register your trademark or copyright with the USPTO, then contemplate taking the additional step to report that trademark or copyright with CBP. This text covers: (i) the distinction between registration and recordation; (ii) key advantages of recording with CBP; (iii) the way to report with CBP; and (iv) how CBP enforces IP infringement on the border.

The Most Efficient Strategy to Shield Your Model on the Border

For Mental property (IP) house owners in the US, acquiring a trademark or copyright registration is a important step to guard their work. Nonetheless, registration is simply half the battle. IP house owners have to have strong monitoring processes in place to search out and implement in opposition to infringers. That’s the place U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) is available in. By way of CBP’s recordation program, model house owners can enlist tens of hundreds of CBP officers as their first line of protection in opposition to infringing imports in any respect 328 U.S. ports of entry. This proactive technique empowers rightsholders to leverage federal enforcement energy on the border—stopping counterfeits earlier than they hit the market.

IP Registration vs. Recordation

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) and the U.S. Copyright Workplace are chargeable for granting trademark and copyright registrations within the U.S. When permitted, the registration gives nationwide safety for the work, and the IP proprietor has unique rights to make use of the work. Nonetheless, enforcement of the registration is as much as the rightsholder. 

CBP’s recordation program permits registered rightsholders to companion with CBP to forestall the importation of products that bear a protected trademark or copyright. CBP has the authority to detain, seize, forfeit, and finally destroy merchandise looking for entry into the US if it bears an infringing trademark or copyright that has been each registered and recorded with CBP. 

Rightsholders could submit an software to CBP to report federally registered logos and copyrights. As soon as a trademark or copyright is recorded with CBP, the proprietor’s info is entered into an digital database accessible to tens of hundreds of U.S. Customs officers in the US and abroad. CBP makes use of the data to focus on shipments and bodily look at merchandise, and help in stopping the importation or exportation of infringing items. CBP does have seizure authority over imports and exports, and even in transit items that cease within the U.S. 

When a seizure happens, CBP notifies the rightsholder and gives detailed intelligence, in accordance with 19 C.F.R. §133.21, concerning the importer, producer, and the infringing items. This info will be leveraged by the rightsholder to construct broader enforcement and litigation methods. 

At the moment, CBP maintains tens of hundreds of energetic recordations. The U.S. just isn’t the one nation with a recordation program. China, for instance, actively enforces mental property rights for each importations and exportations. Corporations that do enterprise in different nations ought to search safety by means of comparable recordation applications as nicely.

Grey Market Safety

Some IP house owners may additionally be eligible for “grey market” safety, which pertains to real merchandise bearing a trademark or model identify permitted to be used in a rustic outdoors the U.S. Grey market items are completely different from counterfeit items markets as a result of counterfeit items are by no means real.

CBP gives restricted safety to rights house owners in opposition to importations of sure grey market items. Solely logos and commerce names recorded with CBP are entitled to grey market safety. Grey market safety is simply supplied when the next two situations are met, per 19 C.F.R. §133.23:

The U.S. and international marks are usually not owned by the identical particular person.
The U.S. and international mark house owners are usually not a mother or father or subsidiary of each other or in any other case topic to widespread possession or management.

The bar to qualify for grey market safety is excessive. At the moment, Phillip Morris is an instance of an organization that has been in a position to meet this stringent burden, and CBP affords its logos grey market safety. 

Key Advantages of Recording with CBP

Recording with CBP is likely one of the most cost-effective methods to guard your model from counterfeiters and dangerous actors.

Lessens the Monitoring Burden

CBP displays and seizes infringing merchandise in any respect 328 ports of entry, vastly helping trademark or copyright holders in defending their IP in opposition to infringers. CBP’s proactive strategy streamlines the monitoring course of and makes it simpler to establish and prosecute unauthorized distributors, importers, and retailers.

Nationwide, Value-Efficient Safety

CBP’s recordation program is in place throughout the nation in any respect U.S. ports of entry. Irrespective of the place counterfeit or infringing items try and enter the nation, CBP officers have the authority and instruments to intervene. Not like different enforcement mechanisms which may be restricted by geography or jurisdiction, CBP’s recordation program gives a uniform layer of safety throughout the complete United States. Moreover, the recordation submitting charges are comparatively low in comparison with the potential prices of litigation or non-public monitoring. 

Entry to Enforcement Intelligence 

When CBP seizes infringing items, they notify the rights proprietor and supply worthwhile enforcement intelligence, equivalent to: 

The port of entry
The outline of the merchandise and amount
Nation of origin
Title and tackle of the producer, exporter, and importer
Images or a bodily pattern of the seized merchandise

Deterrence

All recorded logos and copyrights are publicly listed, so dangerous actors know what mental property CBP is actively monitoring. Monetary penalties and losses suffered by infringers resulting from seized items can act as a major deterrent.

Aids within the Prosecution of Counterfeiters 

CBP has the authority to impose financial fines (for civil penalties, the quantity of which is the MSRP if the gadgets have been legit per 19 U.S.C. §1526(f)) on people facilitating the introduction of counterfeit merchandise into the U.S. The company may request the U.S. 

Legal professional’s Workplace to criminally prosecute these engaged in unlawful actions underneath the Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984. Felony penalties for first-time violators embrace as much as ten years imprisonment and/or a $2 million superb. Repeat offenders resist 20 years imprisonment and/or as much as a $5 million superb.

CBP additionally collaborates with international legislation enforcement businesses and coordinates world raids on counterfeit manufacturing amenities. Customs officers stationed at American embassies worldwide commonly share info for the felony prosecution of exporters and producers of counterfeit items.

The best way to File with CBP

Trademark and copyright recordations are filed on-line by means of the U.S. Customs’ IPR e-Recordation system, adhering to the rules outlined in 19 C.F.R. Half 133.

Rights holders should submit the next info for recordation:

Description of copyright or trademark registered with the USPTO
Nation of manufacture of products bearing the trademark or nation of manufacture of phonorecords or real copies of the copyright work
USPTO Registration Quantity
Names of any subsidiaries, mother or father corporations, or different entities which are underneath widespread management or share any possession curiosity or relationship with the U.S. trademark proprietor, or the names of all events licensed to breed or use the copyrighted work

CBP prices a flat payment of $190 per worldwide class of products for logos and $190 per e-recordation for the copyright you want to report. As soon as your recordation software has been permitted, you might view your CBP recordation utilizing the Mental Property Rights Search (IPRS) database. You need to additionally renew your copyright recordation each 20 years (observe the renewal for CBP coincides together with your USPTO renewal date for TM’s).

CBP Enforcement

IPR enforcement is certainly one of CBP’s Precedence Commerce Points, and the company takes enforcement very critically. CBP even displays shipments that aren’t even destined for the U.S. however are merely in transit.

The company employs a multi-layered, risk-based strategy to implement IPR that features concentrating on shipments based mostly on intelligence and interesting in collaborative operations between CBP, {industry}, and rights holders.

If CBP finds counterfeit items on the border, they’ll detain, seize, and forfeit the products. They could additionally impose civil penalties, that are based mostly upon the Producer’s Recommended Retail Value (MSRP) of the real good. CBP may additionally pursue felony prices, particularly for repeat offenders or large-scale trafficking.

CBP has a powerful enforcement monitor report. In 2024, CBP seized over 32 million gadgets with an estimated MSRP of over $5.4 billion. 

CBP Coaching

CBP additionally accepts industry-led product identification trainings the place rights holders have the chance to teach CBP officers about their particular merchandise and assist them distinguish between genuine and inauthentic merchandise. Rightsholders could submit requests to CBP to conduct an in-person or digital coaching.