Chief, Intellectual Property Enforcement (IPE) Branch, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Trade
Alaina van Horn currently serves as the Chief of the Intellectual Property Enforcement (IPE) Branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Trade, where she supervises a team of attorneys and paralegals responsible for administering CBP’s nationwide intellectual property border enforcement program. The IPE Branch’s core duties include reviewing applications for border enforcement through the e-Recordation system, providing pre-seizure infringement determinations to CBP personnel stationed at all 328 ports of entry, issuing binding rulings to the trade, circulating nationwide guidance on proper interpretation and enforcement of intellectual property rights, adjudicating administrative petitions for post-seizure relief and educating the entire CBP workforce on proper border enforcement procedures. The IPE Branch also serves as technical legal experts for all intellectual property legislation enforced by CBP, is responsible for promulgating all intellectual property border enforcement regulations in Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations and serves as CBP’s subject matter expert for all international capacity building missions directed toward foreign customs administrations.
Immediately prior to this position Ms. van Horn was detailed to the Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) in the Executive Office of the President, as a Policy Advisor specializing in customs law. Prior to joining the IPEC she was a Senior Attorney-Advisor in the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of CBP’s Office of Trade for over a decade, where she provided legal support to all ports of entry on border enforcement of trademarks and copyrights, adjudicated administrative petition for relief from seizure, issued binding rulings and infringement determinations and administered patent and trade secrets-based exclusion orders issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission. Ms. van Horn has conducted numerous capacity building trainings on border enforcement of intellectual property rights to foreign governments, international organizations, and domestic audiences in both the public and private sectors.
