The World Customs Organization in cooperation with the State Revenue Committee of Republic of Armenia organized a National Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy which took place in Yerevan, Armenia from 26th to 28th of June.
Participants at the workshop included twenty Customs officers, senior and expert associate, heads of teams and Customs offices and the workshop was led by two accredited IPR experts from the WCO.
The workshop was inaugurated by Ms. Shushanik Nersisyan - Deputy Chairman of State Revenue Committee of Republic of Armenia wishing successful and fruitful working days. The workshop contributed to increase awareness of the importance of IPR protection with regards to the enormous loss of revenues and damages for legitimate trade of goods impacting on countries economic stability, safety and security. During the seminar, participants gained improved knowledge of legal aspects of IPR protection, national legislation, TRIPS Agreement and the EU legislation.
Cooperation with rights holders was promoted as well with nine presentations given by the representatives of right holders including new techniques applied how to distinguish between ‘genuine’ and ‘fake’ products.
Participants were trained to improve effective Customs controls by applying risk management techniques, identifying risk indicators and focusing on appropriate targeting and selection of suspicious shipments, and performing various types of exercises.