지적재산권을 침해하는 통과화물과 관세법적 규제의 가능성

A negligence of exporting the counterfeit goods and pirated copyright goods which are produced oversea, to the third countries via our country, could cause a damage to consumers as well as a hard hit on a national credibility. Thus, in opposition to that, the government had amended the “Act on the Persons Performing the Duties of Judical Police Officials and the Scope of Their Duties” and put it in operation since June, 2008 as an added policing authority against the infringement of the intellectual property rights related to transshipment of exports and imports to the customs officers' duties. But regarding the infringement of the intellectual property rights, as it is classified as an offense subject to complaint for which a punishment can be carried out by right holders' complaint, and there is no punishment regulation for an attempted crime, an effectiveness in policing is not likely to succeed in reality, and that's the prevailing view of it. To solve such problem, a plan for more effective policing couldbe considered such as adding the transshipment goods which infringes intellectual property rights to the subject to prohibition against import and export in article 235 of the Custom Act and establishing a new punishment regulation to apply when an infringement occurs. But on the other hand, a customs' control reinforcement over the transit goods, transshipment goods could cause an increase of logistics costs due to its inspection, retrograding the current of a trade facilitation which might turn into an excuse for a trade conflict. Therefore, an advisable way of establishing a new policing regulation under the Custom Act about transit goods, transshipment goods, is to watch the debate on international standard for an intellectual property rights enforcement promoted currently by World Customs Organization and then reflect its results on our establishment.