New regulations for including IP rights in the Eurasian Customs Union

New regulations on including intellectual property rights in the Intellectual Property Register of the Eurasian Customs Union came into force on 6 April 2018. The regulations give intellectual property owners an opportunity to make only one customs application covering all countries of the Eurasian Customs Union in order to include the object of their intellectual property in the unified Customs Register.

The intellectual property rights that can be included in the unified Customs Register cover trademarks, copyrights and associated rights. The new regulations define:

• the process for including intellectual property in the Customs Register,
• timeframes for issuing a decision by the Customs, and
• the documents needed for including the object of intellectual property in the Register.

As from now on it should be possible to make only one customs application instead of 5. This brings financial benefits to intellectual property owners: less official fees and documents, and a faster procedure. Including objects of intellectual property in the Register will also give the Customs an opportunity to efficiently deal with counterfeits in the whole territory of the Eurasian Union.

The Eurasian Customs Union was established in 2010 by the founding states Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. In 2015 two more countries, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, joined the Union. The customs procedures in these countries are regulated by the Customs Code, adopted in all 5 countries.

For further information please contact Ms Annikki Hämäläinen.