Representatives from major global brands and maritime companies have developed a set of best practices for the maritime industry to limit the volume of counterfeit goods shipped around the globe through checks on their customers and supply chains.
The new recommended best practices paper builds on a previous document on Know Your Customer (KYC), which was launched last March. The new document covers due diligence recommendations for existing customers, as well as more voluntary measures for both brands and maritime operators to improve the integrity of their relationships throughout the maritime supply chain.
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The new practices are part of the on-going collaboration of signatories to the ‘Declaration of Intent to stop the Maritime transport of counterfeits’ (DOI). This is a joint effort between key members of the global shipping industry and brand owners to prevent the transport of counterfeit goods on shipping vessels.
The “Declaration of Intent to stop the maritime transportation of counterfeit goods” is a voluntary and non-binding statement developed and first signed in November 2016. It acknowledges the “destructive impact” of counterfeits on trade.
The DOI is a 2015 report by BASCAP, on the “Roles and responsibilities of intermediaries in fighting counterfeiting and piracy in the supply chain”. Companies in the maritime industry started working with BASCAP to find solutions, leading BASCAP to sign the DOI in 2016 alongside 12 brand owners and six maritime companies.
New signatories have since joined the initiative and, in April 2018, the United States National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center became the first law enforcement authority to sign the document, establishing their commitment to cooperation and collaboration between the public and private sector.
You can read the best practices in the PDF herebelow