19 CFR 148.55 – Exemption for articles bearing American trademark
(a) Application of exemption. An exemption is provided for trademarked articles accompanying any person arriving in the United States which would be prohibited entry under section 526, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. § 1526), or section 42 of the Act of July 5, 1946 (60 Stat. 440; 15 U.S.C. § 1124), because the trademark has been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and recorded with Customs. The exemption may be applied to those trademarked articles of foreign manufacture bearing a trademark owned by a citizen of, or a corporation or association created or organized within, the United States when imported for the arriving person’s personal use in the quantities provided in pararaph (c) of this section. Unregistered and unrecorded trademarked articles are not subject to quantity limitation.
Terms Used In 19 CFR 148.55
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Date of importation: means , in the case of merchandise imported otherwise than by vessel, the date on which the merchandise arrives within the Customs territory of the United States. See 19 CFR 101.1
- United States: includes all territories and possessions of the United States, except the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Wake Island, Midway Islands, Kingman Reef, Johnston Island, and the island of Guam. See 19 CFR 134.1
(b) Limitations—(1) 30-day period. The exemption in paragraph (a) of this section shall not be granted to any person who has taken advantage of the exemption for the same type of article within the 30-day period immediately prior to his arrival in the United States. The date of the person’s last arrival on which he claimed this exemption shall be considered to be the date he last took advantage of the exemption.
(2) Sale of exempted articles. If an article which has been exempted is sold within one year of the date of importation, the article or its value (to be recovered from the importer), is subject to forfeiture. A sale subject to judicial order or in the liquidation of an estate is not subject to the provisions of this paragraph.
(c) Quantities. Generally, each person arriving in the United States may apply the exemption to one article of the type bearing a protected trademark. The Commissioner shall determine if a quantity of an article in excess of one may be entered and, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, publish in the