Evidence of meeting #4 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was border.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
Lawyer, International Trademark Association
Exactly. Because the bill now speaks about those terms in ways the current Trade-marks Act does not, we feel that it would be very beneficial to stakeholders if it were clearly enunciated from the outset what is meant by those terms.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON
The proposed amendments in your brief were very helpful, as has been all of the information today.
I'll go back and ask, is it better laws that we need or better enforcement? We have 124 staffed border crossings and 37 unstaffed, as an example—all kinds of crossings and so on. Is it better laws, or is it better enforcement of what we currently have? We're certainly not doing a very good job right now if we have a 400% increase in counterfeiting going on. It's a new problem, I guess, that we are all trying to deal with as parliamentarians.
5:25 p.m.
Lawyer, International Trademark Association
I would argue it's both better laws and better enforcement that we need. Right now, the way the request for assistance is drafted in this bill, there is a positive obligation on the rights holder to institute legal action against the importer. I can tell you, in my own personal experience, that many times it's fake and anonymous information that's provided on the importer documentation. So what happens is that the goods are destined for Canada, they pass through customs, and the consignee calls up the company that's shipping the items and they end up being shipped to their actual destination. So the information that's located on the importer records is not that of the actual importer. It's being done because the people we're dealing with are criminals who find ways to avoid being found and caught. It's especially true in our request for assistance program. But in that request for assistance, if brands don't participate and don't sign up for the request for assistance, what good is that law? That's where the administrative regime comes in. The only advantage Canada has is that we've never had an administrative regime. We're drafting our legislation now, so we get to look at other countries to see what's working there.
November 18th, 2013 / 5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON
Why isn't it in Bill C-8? Why did the drafters of the bill not think it was necessary?
5:25 p.m.
Lawyer, International Trademark Association
I can't tell you that. I do not know, because I didn't draft it. I would have included it.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON
You would have included it in there.
As to the in-transit issue, why wouldn't we be checking everything going through?
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, colleagues and witnesses, for your time and expert advice.
We're adjourned.