New subcommittee aims to stop pirates in their tracks

The Subcommittee Against Intellectual Property Infringement, which is attached to the National Integrated Service of Customs and Tax Administration (SENIAT), is waging a war against IP pirates. The subcommittee was created in February this year in order to coordinate the efforts of private and public sectors in enforcing regulations designed to protect rights holders against the unlawful use of their work.

The subcommittee focuses on administrative reforms that are designed to make more effective the anti-piracy controls of competent authorities, in relation to customs and tax controls, information processes, and judicial harmonization (eg, between the police and the Attorney General's Office).

So far the subcommittee has initiated various reforms, including:

• an information campaign in all offices of the SENIAT;
  
  
• an induction and training workshop for customs and tax officials to help them recognize IP infringement;
  
  
• a study into the reclassification of codes and tariffs of goods and equipment that may be used to facilitate IP infringement;
  
  
• a policy to help identify and pre-empt smuggling; and
  
  
• a consumer education campaign, comparing original and falsified products.

Manuel Antonio Rodríguez, Estudio Antequera Parilli & Rodríguez, Caracas