In our April 1995 Information Letter (N.S. 185) we reported on the EU's Regulation 3295/94 which has the object of restricting the import of trademark and copyright infringements into the EU. This regulation has now been broadened to cover other types of intellectual property rights. Council Regulation 241/1999, which came into effect on July 1, 1999, expands the definition of "goods infringing an intellectual property right" in Regulation 3295/94 to cover goods that infringe a patent or a supplementary protection certificate. It also makes it clear that the provisions relating to trademarks apply to Community trademarks as well as to national rights.

The provisions relating to goods that infringe patents differ from those relating to copyright and trademark infringements and follow those of the previous regulation relating to designs. Thus the owner or consignee of goods that are suspected of being patent infringements can require that they be released or released subject to provision of a security as long as the customs authorities have been advised that the question of whether or not the goods are an infringement has been referred to an "authority competent to take a substantive decision" on the question of whether the goods are an infringement and that authority has not made any order for interim relief on behalf of the patentee.