The World Customs Organization (WCO) held the 9th Rights Holders Consultative Group (RHCG) Meeting on 15 November 2022, in a hybrid format.
In his opening remarks the Chairperson, Mr. Joeri Mombers, welcomed delegates and highlighted the importance of cooperation between Customs and Rights Holders (RHs) in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. He expressed his appreciation for the WCO Secretariat’s efforts to ensure that the RHCG met regularly.
During the meeting, the Secretariat outlined the situation with respect to intellectual property right (IPR) infringements based on the WCO Illicit Trade Report 2022 and provided updates on the progress made in terms of cooperation, visibility, capacity building, operations and information exchange since the 8th Meeting.
Turning to information exchange, the Secretariat encouraged participants to register on the IPR CENcomm Rights Holders' Corner to facilitate more tangible action through enhanced cooperation between Customs and the private sector.
The meeting also devoted time to discussions on the WCO Guidelines on “Environmentally safe storage and destruction of intellectual property infringing goods” and the challenges posed in this regard when it came to e-commerce. Speakers from Customs and the private sector shared their experience and discussed the way forward in these two priority areas.
The RHCG was established by the Secretary General of the WCO in 2010, the same year that the Customs-Business Partnership was established. The aim of the RHCG is to promote the exchange of best practices and information between RHs and the WCO Secretariat, particularly regarding new trade trends and challenges together with potential areas of cooperation between the public and private sectors to combat IPR infringements.
Delegates were invited to participate in the joint session of the 19th WCO Counterfeiting and Piracy (CAP) Group Meeting to be held on 17 November 2022.