Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens brand owners' ability to identify and stop infringing imports and increases transparency about data sharing, but at the cost of broader disclosure of nonpublic commercial information that raises privacy, competitive, and compliance risks for importers, marketplaces, and logistics providers.
Rights holders (brand owners, IP holders) gain clearer, stronger grounds for CBP to act because CBP must have 'reasonable suspicion' before initiating information exchanges, reducing frivolous or arbitrary seizures or investigations of imports.
Rights holders can receive images and additional nonpublic marketplace or logistics information from CBP, helping them identify counterfeit or infringing goods more effectively and speed resolution.
Small businesses and financial actors get improved transparency because CBP must notify rights owners when it transmits nonpublic marketplace/logistics information.
Shippers, marketplaces, freight forwarders, and sellers may have their nonpublic commercial data shared with rights owners — raising privacy and confidentiality risks (and 'reasonable suspicion' still permits investigatory disclosures), which could expose sensitive business information.
Importers and sellers face greater risk that their goods and proprietary information will be examined or tested by a broader set of third parties because the bill allows 'any other party with an interest' to examine merchandise, creating potential misuse or competitive harm.
Marketplaces and logistics providers could incur new legal and compliance burdens from requirements to transmit nonpublic third‑party data to rights owners, increasing operational costs and contractual friction.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Raises CBP's action standard to "reasonable suspicion," allows sharing of nonpublic marketplace/logistics information with rights owners, requires notification, and broadens who may inspect merchandise.
Official title: Expand the sharing of information with respect to suspected violations of intellectual property rights in trade.
Introduced August 1, 2025 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress August 10, 2026
Raises the standard for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to act from "suspects" to "has a reasonable suspicion" that imported goods infringe trademarks or copyrights. Permits CBP to provide rights owners with nonpublic information obtained from online marketplaces, express consignment operators, freight forwarders, or other entities, requires CBP to notify the rights owner when such nonpublic information is transmitted (subject to regulations), and broadens who may examine or test allegedly infringing merchandise to include any other party the Commissioner deems to have an interest.