ENFORCEMENT

Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement
As successful as CBP’s pilot program proved to be
at preventing illicit goods from entering the stream
of commerce, it must be seen as only one avenue for
addressing this large and growing challenge. Further
refinements are necessary. 11 Specifically, additional
mechanisms are needed to enable private stakeholders
(whose rights are implicated by the abandoned parcels)
to be in a position to conduct their own investigations
and initiate civil actions and criminal referrals to law
enforcement authorities as part of a comprehensive
strategy to address the proliferation of illicit commerce
in small parcel shipments. 12
ACTION NO. 3.4: Identify operational
best practices in IP enforcement for express
shipping operations. In order to build expertise
and increase efficiency at all express locations,
CBP will study, identify, and report on best
operational practices in IP enforcement among
existing express operations. CBP will also
assess all opportunities to streamline processes
and procedures, including by the adoption of
advanced technological solutions, to effect
seizures and forfeitures in the small parcel
environment.
SECTION 3
Technological (Targeting) Solutions.
CBP must integrate technological advances in all
processes as part of the improvements to operational
models and strategies, at each step along the way
from targeting to interdiction to product disposition.
High-volume transaction environments must include
state-of-the-art workflow systems and fully leverage
technological solutions, as well as extract “big data” for
analytics and trend recognition.
In this context, collected data should be used as
a basis to introduce enhanced targeting, prediction,
and decisional processes, and should be shared, as
appropriate by CBP, with affected stakeholders to elevate
private and public sector competencies. Information must
not remain buried in detailed or unstructured data logs
(generally referred to as a “data lake”), but rather modern
computer science techniques should be employed to
leverage and extract insights and trends from available
data. Reports from available data should not be of a static
or generic nature, focused almost exclusively on highlevel
data points such as country of origin, number of
seizures (and corresponding value), and product category.
Additional research into trends at each POE, by
product category, sector, and brand—including analysis
of the corresponding country of origin, transshipment
routes, evasive tactics employed, repeat offenders, and
other illicit characteristics (e.g., such as identification
of intermediary drop shippers or domestic finishers)—
would provide law enforcement and other appropriate
stakeholders a more complete picture of the state of
anti-counterfeiting measures, and identify opportunities
for further improvements. See the “Call for Research”
at the conclusion of Section IV of this Strategic Plan for
additional discussion.
ACTION NO. 3.5: Assess the voluntary
abandonment pilot program. CBP—along with
the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory
Committee (COAC), and in consultation with
representatives of small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) and IPEC—will evaluate the IPR voluntary
abandonment pilot program’s performance,
with a particular focus on whether the program
has demonstrated the capacity to reduce the
resources required for administrative actions;
effectively identify and exclude from the program
repeat offenders and importers of potentially
hazardous goods; enable appropriate postabandonment
civil investigations by rights
holders; and not diminish law enforcement’s
ability to investigate and prosecute offenders as
may be warranted under the circumstances. CBP
should consider whether, subject to legal and
administrative limitations, the release of standard
data (name and address of manufacturer,
exporter, and importer) to interested parties
would result in material improvements to small
shipment seizure and forfeiture proceedings.
ACTION NO. 3.6: Support access to data
on patterns and trends. Strong, responsive
public policy and proactive business measures
to prevent IPR violations depend on highquality
data on current patterns and trends
in illicit trade. CBP possesses information on
supply chains and can identify patterns from
its vast stock of movement data that can lead
to actionable intelligence, both for criminal
investigators as well as private sector, civil-based
investigations. Within two years of the issuance
of this Plan, CBP will identify opportunities to
make non-public agency data more readily
available to Federal partners and to the private
sector where such release would be permissible
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