Feb 25th, 03
ISC MEMBERS CONTINUE ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS WITH MEXICAN RAIDS
Mexican Government, ISC Members And Investigators Seize Thousands of Counterfeit Ink Cartridges
LEXINGTON, KY. The Imaging Supplies Coalition for International Intellectual Property Protection (ISC) announced additional enforcement actions in Mexico.
In 2002, the ISC Members and their law firm and investigators educated Mexican Government officials from the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property and the Attorney General’s Office on the scope of counterfeit imaging supplies in Mexico. This lead to the training of expert appraisers at the Attorney General’s Office on methods of identifying counterfeit products by the various ISC Brand Owners.
This training lead to a precedent setting enforcement action on retail stores at the Plaza de la Computacion in Mexico City. This was the first time that a brand owner, Epson, initiated a raid on this location housing multiple violators of Intellectual Property Rights. The result was the seizure of hundreds of counterfeit Epson ink cartridges.
A second raid on February 4, 2003 by ISC investigators, along with 40 Federal Police officers, expert appraisers, prosecutors and Assistants of the Industrial and Intellectual Property Division of the Attorney General’s Office began just before midnight with the forced opening of 14 retail locations. This raid resulted in the seizure of thousands of Epson and Canon ink cartridges.
In another enforcement action Mexican Customs seized two containers entering Mexico City. Each container held 3000 counterfeit ink cartridges.
Earlier this year the ISC announced raids and seizures in Canada, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru.
ISC President, Bill Duffy said “We are off to a tremendous start this year and are looking for 2003 to be a great year for the Members in protecting their brands with multiple raids, seizures, criminal and civil actions around the world.”
For further information please contact the ISC at (859) 278-3032 or via e-mail at
ISCDuffy@aol.com. Or visit our website at www.isc-inc.org
The Imaging Supplies Coalition for International Intellectual Property Protection, Inc. is a non-profit association of imaging supplies Original Equipment Manufacturers. Coalition members are Brother International Corp., Canon U.S.A., Inc, Epson America Inc., Katun Corporation, Lexmark International, Inc., Oki Data Corporation, Sharp Electronics Corporation, Toshiba America Business Solutions, and Xerox Corporation.