World Customs Organization in cooperation with the Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina organized a WCO National Seminar on Intellectual Property Rights on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy which took place in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 3-7 November 2014, supported by the Customs Cooperation Found (CCF) /Germany.

Participants were Customs officers of the Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Senior and expert associates, heads of teams and Customs officers, took part in the WCO National Seminar, which was led by two IPR experts from the WCO.

The seminar contributed to increasing awareness of the importance of IPR protection regarding the enormous loss of revenues, damages on markets for legitimate trade of goods thereby impacting on countries economic stability, safety and security.

During the seminar, participants gained improved knowledge of legal aspects of IPR protection, national legislation, TRIP’S Agreement and the EU legislation as well as the possibility to implement and use the WCO Interface Public-Members (IPM) platform as a tool to facilitate the distinction between genuine and counterfeit products.

Cooperation with the private sector was promoted with seven representatives of rights holders delivering presentations including new techniques applied on how to distinguish between ‘genuine’ and ‘fake’ products.

Participants were trained to establish effective Customs controls, applying risk management processes, risk assessment identifying risk indicators and focusing on appropriate targeting and selection of suspicious shipments with counterfeit products, performing various types of exercises.