Toy Companies Discuss E-Commerce IP Concerns With CBP, CPSC and Senate Finance Staffers
Toy companies met with Senate Finance Committee staffers, CBP, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and representatives from Alibaba and Amazon June 14 in Washington to discuss intellectual property issues, the Toy Association said in a news release. "Participating toy companies spoke about their experiences tackling infringing toys sold online and discussed possible solutions to improve toy safety and IP protection on e-commerce platforms," the release said. The Senate Finance Committee is taking a close look at e-commerce platforms and sales of counterfeit goods (see 1805300029)
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Among other developments, "CPSC’s director of import surveillance said that the volume of e-commerce packages, lack of data, and enforcement procedures designed for ocean containers (not de minimis shipments) have collectively resulted in numerous challenges in tackling e-commerce shipments," the Toy Association said. "The Toy Association suggested that the CPSC pursue a working group of interested stakeholders to address the problem of unsafe products sold online."
CBP is interested in future training sessions with Toy Association members to improve practice to identify counterfeit products, it told the group. The association's staff "discussed creating a guide to help agents spot non-compliant toys" that "would also include top IP violation trends in different toy product categories," it said. The association also began discussing possible solutions "to help the retailers further verify the safety and legitimacy of the products offered for sale" on e-commerce platforms. The Toy Association plans to issue a white paper on the subject, it said.