U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Italian Customs Joint Operation Nets 115,000 Counterfeit Luxury Items

On December 5, 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that, in partnership with Agenzia Delle Dogane E Dei Monopoli (Italian Customs), they had recently completed Operation Dolce Vita, a bilateral Intellectual Property Rights ("IPR") enforcement operation that targeted high value luxury items from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The operation included an information exchange and targeting of suspect cargo at all ports of entry in both the U.S. and Italy.

Operation Dolce Vita conducted April 27 through May 10, 2014, resulted in 470 seizures of nearly 115,000 counterfeit items. This number includes a transshipment of 63,000 bottles of perfume seized by Italian Customs. The luxury goods seized were watches and jewelry at 38 percent (19,661 units) followed by footwear at 35 percent (18,062 pair), handbags and wallets at 12 percent and eyewear at 7 percent. Italy’s seizure of 63,000 bottles of perfume exceeds the 19,661 units of watches and jewelry, and would make perfume the greatest number of goods seized.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Singapore Sign Customs Agreements

On December 1, 2014, the United States signed three Customs agreements with Singapore, ensuring greater cooperation and mutual assistance on Customs enforcement and the facilitation of lawful trade and travel.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske and Singapore Customs Director General Ho Chee Pong signed a U.S.– Singapore Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement ("CMAA") and a Mutual Recognition Arrangement ("MRA") between U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism ("C-TPAT") and Singapore’s Customs’ Secure Trade ("STC") Partnership.

CMAAs are bilateral agreements between countries and enforced by their respective Customs administrations. CMAAs provide the legal framework for the exchange of information and evidence to assist countries in the enforcement of Customs laws, including duty evasion, trafficking, proliferation, money laundering, and terrorism-related activities. With this new agreement signed, the United States now has seventy-two (72) CMAAs with other countries across the world.

The mutual recognition arrangement between C-TPAT and Singapore’s STC will link the two industry partnership programs, so that together they create a unified and sustainable security posture that can assist in securing and facilitating global cargo trade. It provides tangible and intangible benefits to C-TPAT and Singapore’s STP members including fewer exams when shipping cargo, a faster validation process, common standards, and efficiency for Customs and business, transparency between Customs administrations, business resumption, front-of-the-line processing, and marketability.

C-TPAT is a voluntary government-business initiative to build cooperative relationships that strengthen and improve overall international supply chain and U.S. border security. C-TPAT recognized that CBP can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close cooperation with the ultimate owners of the international supply chain such as importers, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers. The C-TPAT program is one layer in CBP's multi-layered cargo enforcement strategy.

Customs Broker Exam to be Offered April 13, 2015

U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") has announced that the next Customs Broker License Examination will next be offered on April 13, 2015. It is necessary to have a Customs Broker License to conduct Customs business on behalf of clients. Custom s business means those activities involving transactions with CBP concerning the entry and admissibility of merchandise, its classification and valuation, the payment of duties, taxes, or other charges assessed or collected by CBP on merchandise by reason of its importation, and the refund, rebate, or drawback of those duties, taxes, or other charges. Customs business also includes the preparation, and activities relating to the preparation, of documents in any format and the electronic transmission of documents and parts of documents intended to be filed with CBP in furtherance of any other customs business activity, whether or not signed or filed by the preparer. Conducting Customs business with out a license can subject the practitioner to a penalty in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for each transaction or violation and in an amount not to exceed an aggregate of $30,000 for all those transactions or violations.

David Trumbull, Principal, Agathon Associates is a License (and insured) Customs Broker and is ready to assist with questions relating to classification, tariff, and other issues relating to the import of textiles and apparel.

Canada-Korea FTA to Go Into Effect January 1st

The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, today announced that the Canada-Korea Economic Growth and Prosperity Act has received royal assent. This announcement coincides with the passage of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement ("CKFTA") ratification bill in the South Korean National Assembly yesterday, which concludes South Korea’s ratification process.

With this latest milestone, Canada and South Korea are on track to bring the agreement into force on January 1, 2015, fulfilling the commitment made by Prime Minister Harper and South Korean President Park Geun-hye in March 2014 in Seoul and in September 2014 in Ottawa.

For the rule of origin is:

• for apparel, single transformation and
• for most home texiles, fabric forward.

Agathon Associates has prepared an Analyis of the Agreement's Textile and Apparel Provisions

AFA strengthens ties to academia during Annual Meeting

The online textile news service eTextileCommunications.com reports that during its 29th Annual Meeting at N.C. State University’s College of Textiles, the American Flock Association ("AFA") strengthened its ties to the academic world, discussed its goals for the coming years, honored a longtime member and chairman and elected a new chairman. ... ...READ MORE.

Catching Up

This week I will focus on issued patents.  Below is a summary of selected patents that have been recently issued in textile related classification codes:

Venting apparatus with no-catch mechanism:  A venting apparatus with a no-catch mechanism for use with apparel and a method of manufacture of the apparatus are described. The venting mechanism comprises an opening, a mesh arrangement, and a no-catch mechanism.  Patent:  8713712.  Inventor:  Maurer.  Assignee:  North Face Apparel Group.

Necktie assembly:  A necktie with an additional strip attached and a knot ring.  The knot ring is used in lieu of tying a knot.  Patent:  8713713.  Inventor:  Yao.  Not assigned.

Thiophene azo dyes and laundry care compositions containing the same:  Thiophene azo dyes for use as hueing agents and laundry care compositions comprising such thiophene azo dyes a process for making such dyes, and laundry care compositions and methods of using these dyes. The thiophene azo dyes contain a formally charged moiety and are generally comprised of at least one chromophore component and at least one polymeric component. Chromophore components fluoresce blue, red, violet, or purple colors when exposed to ultraviolet light, or may absorb light to reflect these same shades. These thiophene azo dyes will whiten fabrics but not build up over time.  ous in providing a hueing effect, for example, a whitening effect to fabrics, will not build up over time and are stable with bleaching agents used in laundry care compositions.  Patent:  8715368.  Inventor:  Miracle, et.al.  Assignee:  The Proctor & Gamble Company.

Device for use in sewing:  A thread removal tool for getting rid of loose thread pieces, thread ends, etc. from textiles, fabric, cloth and the like, for example, after ripping open a previously produced seam.  Patent:  8713766.  Inventor:  Wiman.  Not assigned.

Ventilating shoe:  A ventilating shoe including a removable deodorant and/or a perfumed pad includes. A series of closely spaced small openings are disposed between the sole and the upper shoe portion surrounding the shoe with the exception of a back portion thereof. In addition, an open porous pad impregnated with a deodorant and/or perfume and a longitudinally extending air chamber are provided.  Patent:  8713816.  Inventor:  Al-Sabah.  Not Assigned.

Training Footwear:  An article of footwear includes a sole having a forefoot portion, a heel portion and an outsole having a bottom surface including a primary ground contacting surface. The bottom surface of the outsole includes a forefoot bulge and a heel bulge which provide the footwear with controlled instability for providing dynamic conditioning of the wearer's muscles during the gait cycle.  Patent:  8713817.  Inventor:  Litchfield, et.al.  Assignee:  Reebok International Limited.

Cushioned shoe construction:  A shoe construction including a shoe upper, an intermediate composite structure and an outsole. The composite structure includes cushion members with one cushion member being positioned to underlie a heel of a wearer and another cushion member being positioned to underlie the ball of the foot. The composite structure can also include a relatively rigid lower member underlying the cushion member for the ball of the foot. The composite structure can provide a flexure discontinuity in the shoe forward of the midfoot zone of the shoe.  Patent:  8713818.  Inventor:  Doerer and Schauster.  Assignee:  Brown Shoe Company, Inc. 

Composite sole structure:  A lightweight sole structure may include a lobed member having a protruding portion associated with a cleat member and a chambered member located in an indention in an intermediate member. Patent:  8713819.  Inventor: Auger.  Assignee:  Nike, Inc.

Braided eye splice and method:  A braided eye splice is presented that is formed with the braider yarns of the rope, in which the braider yarns are braided back into the rope. A braided section of rope may be used as a braider yarn or combined with another braider yarn to form the splice. The tensile failure of ropes made with this splice occurs outside the spliced section, suggesting that full rope strength is maintained.  Patent:  8713905.  Inventor:  Branscomb.  Not Assigned.

Composite coating for strings:  A buffer layer is used to coat on the multi-filament wrapped string to fill the gaps and allow better or more consistent application of nanoparticles. The polymers of the buffer-layer coating have a high melt-flow (low viscosity) during coating process to fill all the gaps between the filaments, and the filaments are fixed by the coatings onto base core materials. An outer protective coating is applied, which may comprise a composite nylon, clay nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, an impact modifier, or any combination of the foregoing.  Patent:  8713906.  Inventor:  Yaniv and Mao.  Assignee:  Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc.

Knitted fabric for hook-and-loop fastener:  A knitted fabric for hook-and-loop fastener comprising of tricot stitch for the knitted fabric for hook-and-loop fastener.  Patent:  8713974.  Inventor:  Tsuchida and Habe.  Assignee:  Marubeni Intex Co., Ltd., Maruha Tateami Co., Ltd.

Protective glove having segmented wrist guard:  A protective sports glove including a contoured wrist cuff that substantially shields a gap defined between adjacent portions of the protective sports glove, such as hand and cuff portions. The contoured wrist cuff and/or the cuff portion can include multiple segments that enable the wrist cuff to flex with a wearer's wrist.   Patent:  8719963.  Inventor:  Winningham.  Assignee:  Warrior Sports, Inc.

Method for increasing thickness of non-woven fabric and apparatus for implementing the same:  The present invention utilizes jet streams of hot gas at a high efficiency and thereby to increase a bulk of non-woven fabric. Non-woven fabric containing thermoplastic synthetic fibers is subjected to jet streams of hot gas in a thickness direction of the non-woven fabric. A temperature of the jet streams of hot gas used for this process is set to a level lower than the temperature at which a resinous ingredient forming the surface of the thermoplastic begins to be melted. The jet streams of hot gas are directed to penetrate fiber interstices in the non-woven fabric and then to strike on a means serving to divert the jet streams of hot gas.  Patent:  8720021.  Inventor:  Takahashi.  Assignee:  Uni-Charm Corporation

Impact attenuating and spring elements and products containing such elements:  Impact attenuating/spring systems with two body portions and at least one spring member between the body portions for use in apparel of footwear.  The components of the impact attenuating and spring element are arranged such that when a force is applied to the body portions, the spring member will exert a counter force.  The spring members include one or more polymeric element that stretches under a tensile force. The impact attenuating and spring elements may be included in a piece of footwear or other device in a manner such that a user or a retailer (or others) can select an appropriate spring member (or portion thereof), e.g., depending on characteristics of the user or the intended use.  Patent:  8720085.  Inventors:  Smaldone, et.al.  Assignee:  Nike, Inc.

Impact attenuating and spring elements and products containing such elements:  Sister patent to 8720085 above.  Patent:  8720084.  Inventors:  Smaldone, et.al.  Assignee:  Nike, Inc.

Yarn, especially a thread or an embroidery thread as well as a method to produce such a yarn:  A yarn, especially a sewing thread or an embroidery thread, is described, which has the structure of a core yarn with at least one core consisting of multifilament yarns and a spin over of staple fiber yarns.  The advantage is that the new method binds the staple more tightly to the core increasing strength and suitability of the yarn for sewing and embroidery thread.  Patent:  8720174.  Inventor:  Kochmann.  Assignee:  Amann & Sohne Gmbh & Co. Kg

Thin-wall polymer coated articles and gloves and a method therefor:  Clothing and gloves having a polymer coating the surface where the polymer coating comprises a polyurethane dispersion made from the reaction product of an isocyanate functional prepolymer, a chain extender, and a chain terminator.  The invention provides improved flexibility, breathability, dexterity and feel, as well as self-sanitizing, self-deodorizing capabilities and improved non-slip grip performance.  Patent:  8719964.  Inventor:  O’Neill.  Assignee:  O’Neill LLC.
 

Jim Carson is a principal of RB Consulting, Inc. and a registered patent agent.  He has over 30 years of experience across multiple industries including the biotechnology, textile, computer, telecommunications, and energy sectors.  RB Consulting, Inc. specializes in providing management, prototyping, and regulatory services to small and start-up businesses.  He can be reached via email at James.Carson.Jr@gmail.com or by phone at (803) 792-2183.

Three Dept. of Defense Clothing Contracts Awarded

Excel Manufacturing, El Paso, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $40,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for flame resistant, type II, class I, utility coveralls. This contract was a competitive acquisition, and 15 offers were received. Location of performance is Texas with a Dec. 1, 2019, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-15-D-1012).

Short Bark Industries, Inc., Vonore, Tennessee, has been awarded a maximum $11,011,544 modification (P00101) exercising the second option year to a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1005), with four one-year option periods, for combat utility uniform blouses. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Tennessee, Mississippi, and Puerto Rico, with a Dec. 3, 2015, performance completion date. Using military service is Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Kandor Manufacturing, Inc., Arecibo, Puerto Rico, has been awarded a maximum $6,788,486 modification (P00101) exercising the second option year to one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1014), with four one-year option periods, for combat utility uniform blouses. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Puerto Rico and Mississippi, with a Dec. 3, 2015, performance completion date. Using military service is Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.