If the Customs officer examining your shipment considers that the goods may be subject to a trade mark or copyright notice, the goods will be held and referred to the Fraud & Prohibitions Investigations Group for investigation.
Once the goods have been further examined and evaluated, they will either be released to you if they don't appear to be infringing or they will be detained for further investigation. You will be advised of the trade marks or copyright works that appear to apply to your goods, and you will be asked to make submissions on whether the goods are genuine or not. You will have 10 working days in which to respond with the requested information. If you wish to examine the goods, this can be arranged.
Information is also obtained from the rights owner in order to establish if the goods bear infringing signs or are pirated copies. (link to definitions – section 135 Trade Marks Act 2002 and section 135 Copyright Act 1994).
Determination
At the end of the investigation, a Determination (or opinion) will be made by the Customs Service as to whether the notice applies or not. The Determination is sent to each of the rights owners, and includes details of the goods, the name and address of the importer and the identity of the supplier. The Determination is also sent to you.
The goods are then detained for a further 10 working days (it may be extended to 20 working days depending on the circumstances) to enable the rights owner to commence proceedings against you in the High Court. If the rights owner does not commence the proceedings within the detention period, the goods are released to the importer - assuming that there are no other outstanding matters.
Court action
If proceedings are commenced against you, the Court will be asked to confirm that the notice applies to your goods. If the Court finds in favour of the rights owner, it will order that the goods are surrendered or destroyed. The Court would also be asked to order you to pay costs to the rights owner.
Voluntary forfeiture
You may surrender the goods to the Crown by giving written notice to Customs to that effect and the goods will be disposed of, usually by commercial shredding. This consent notice can be forwarded by letter to the New Zealand Customs Service, P O Box 29, Auckland, by e-mail to feedback@customs.govt.nz, or by facsimile to 09 359 6560.
Surrendering the goods does not automatically mean that the rights owner cannot take any action against you. If you want to discuss this with the rights owner, the investigator can provide you with contact information.