continued from page 3 (iv) Renewal Term Registrations are currently valid for renewable terms of 15 years. This will be reduced to renewable periods of 10 years by the amended Act. It is not clear yet whether renewal fees will be reduced as a corollary. To take advantage of the longer term of protection, owners of allowed pharmaceutical trade mark applications based on proposed use should file Declarations of Use as soon as possible. However, if it is more important to secure registration for the broadest possible goods/ services, not all of which may be used, a trade mark owner may wish to delay the deadline for filing a Declaration until the amendments are implemented, when the application will automatically register without use, although this will result in a shorter 10 year term of protection. (v) New Border Measures On 1 January, 2015, Canada implemented its Request for Assistance (RFA) border measures program—the cornerstone of the Combatting Counterfeit Products Act (CCPA). Under the program, registered trade marks can be recorded with the Canada Border Services Agency, permitting customs officials to detain suspect imported counterfeit goods bearing such marks at the border for up to ten days (five for perishable goods). During detention, the trade mark owner may be provided with samples of the goods and can request information to help to identify the source of the counterfeit products and facilitate a civil claim against the importer. The new program complements provisions of the Customs Act, Trademarks Act, Copyright Act and Criminal Code generally governing the import and sale of counterfeit products, as well as the new criminal sanctions and an expanded definition of infringement in the Trademarks Act that came into force in December 2014 when the CCPA received Royal Assent. While the border measures regime does not apply to grey goods, pharmaceutical preparations cannot be sold in Canada without prior Health Canada approval or without complying with Canada-specific labelling requirements. Consequently, parallel import of pharmaceutical preparations is illegal, and importers of such products would be subject to prosecution, even if not under the Trademarks Act. 4 International Update Czech Republic PETOSEVIC As of 1 January, 2015, the Czech Republic introduced a new set of rules regulating customs measures intended to combat counterfeiting on the internal market. The new regulations are in line with the external border measures regulated by Regulation (EU) No 608/2013 of the European Parliament and Council of 12 June 2013. The new Czech regulations have introduced forms and requirements for applications for action similar to those in the EU Regulation No. 608/2013, including detailed information on genuine goods (as with Article 6(3)(g)(h)(i) of the EU Regulation No. 608/2013). For the Czech Customs to be able to detain any suspected counterfeits within the country’s borders, trade mark holders should file a separate application for the intra-border customs watch. Once such customs watch application is in place, the customs will detain the goods ex officio within the period of one year, which can be extended each year before the expiration date. Once the goods suspected of infringing IP rights are detained by the customs, a similar procedure to the one regulated on the EU level for border measures is envisaged by the intra-border customs regulations, which also includes a simplified procedure for the destruction of the goods, following the expressed or implied consent of the holder of the infringing goods. However, unlike the EU Regulation No. 608/2013, the small consignment procedure is not possible under the Czech intra-border customs watch system. The new set of rules introducing the intra-border customs watch measures is a welcome novelty that will enable IP right holders to combat counterfeiting more effectively on the internal market in the Czech Republic. The Czech Customs are very efficient in their anti-counterfeiting actions and this new set of rules similar to the ones introduced at EU level will most likely make a strong impact on the trade with counterfeits and other infringing goods paragraph 20/A called “Temporary inaccessibility of electronic data”. The amendment allows the National Institute for Quality and Organizational Development in Healthcare and Medicines to combat counterfeit drugs sold online faster and more effectively. Namely, the Institute can order the removal of online content on fake or prohibited medicines and require the website owner to comply with the order for up to 90 days. The website owner has to remove the content within one working day or pay a fine ranging from EUR €315 — 3,150 (USD $357-3,570). If the website owner fails to comply, the court may order that the fine be paid several times. The authorities may report intellectual property infringement at the same time, and if the court decides to make the electronic data permanently inaccessible, this decision would override the one on temporary inaccessibility. If the website owner does not challenge the Institute’s decision on temporary inaccessibility, the names of infringing websites may be displayed on the Institute’s website for up to 90 days. Montenegro Gordana Pavlovic and Maruska Bracic, CABINET PAVLOVIC With its decision of 10 April 2014, WIPO Arbitration Center accepted the complaint filed by Novartis AG (Novartis) that the domain name dailies.me was registered and used in bad faith and that it should be transferred to Novartis. .ME top level domains are very attractive and presence in Montenegro is not required for registration. Adam Strongbow from Boston, USA registered the domain name dailies.me. The website resolved to pay-per-click (parking site) which contained links to other websites offering contact lenses of Novartis, as well as its competitors. Novartis (which acquired Alcon) filed a complaint with WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center which is in charge of resolving conflicts regarding .ME toplevel-domain names. Novartis argued that the subject domain name is identical to its trade marks DAILIES, registered in numerous countries around the world, including Montenegro, as well as that they own and operate a website www.dailies.com. Hungary PETOSEVIC On 1 January, 2015, a significant addition to the Hungarian Act 95 of 2005 on Medicinal Products for Human Use entered into force —