Over 44,000 children's items with images of popular cartoon characters were detained by customs officers in Burgas due to suspicions of intellectual property rights violations. The goods arrived in a sea container from China and were intended for import into Bulgaria. The container was selected for a thorough inspection by employees of the “Customs Intelligence and Investigation“ department at the Territorial Directorate “Burgas Customs“ after a risk analysis.
During the inspection, the inspectors found that the goods corresponded to the declared type and quantity. However, among them, a total of 44,136 children's items with figurative images of famous cartoon characters, which are subject to intellectual property rights, were found.
This concerns 32,256 children's plastic cups and 11,880 bottle caps. Because of the images on them, customs officers carried out an additional check in a specialized European information system for combating counterfeiting and piracy.
The check showed reasonable indications that the goods may have violated intellectual property rights. Therefore, the entire quantity of over 44,000 items was detained by the customs authorities in accordance with the European regulation for the protection of these rights. The owner of the protected international trademark is yet to be notified of the case, who will have to decide on the identified items.