EN 2007 APR BULGARIA NOMINATIONS

UNCLAS SOFIA 000227 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR OTRA BU SUBJECT: EN 2007 APR BULGARIA NOMINATIONS REF: A) SECSTATE 12059 ¶1. Embassy Sofia nominates Mrs. Gergana Cheshmedzhieva and Mr. Rossen Pavlov, of the Bulgarian Customs Office, for the USPTO GIPA Enforcement training seminar scheduled for April 16-20, 2007, as per reftel. ¶2. Mrs. Cheshmedzhieva has been with the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate at the Bulgarian Customs Office since ¶2002. Before joining the customs administration, she worked for four years in the Bulgarian Patent Office as editor of the "Intellectual Property" Journal. As Senior Expert at the Customs Office, Cheshmedzhieva is responsible for combating IPR infringements and spreading intelligence information on border measures for IPR protection among various customs offices. She is the national contact point officer for the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe, which covers movements of goods infringing IPR and entries in the Customs Enforcement Network Database. Her duties also include participation in the establishment of an electronic IPR protection system to enhance cooperation between enforcement authorities. ¶3. Mr. Rossen Pavlov has been a chief expert at the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, Bulgarian Customs Office, since 2001. Mr. Pavlov is responsible for combating commercial fraud and smuggling in counterfeit excise goods. He is the national contact point officer for Risk Information Form (RIF) risk management system, organized by DG TAXUD; member of the AGIS project Kalmar, organized by British customs and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF),concerning rail traffic; national contact point officer for providing information to OLAF concerning movements of tobacco and tobacco products; national contact point officer in the Task Force on container security at South European Cooperation (SECI) Center; and national contact point officer in the Anti-Fraud and Anti-Smuggling Task Force at SECI Center. ¶4. Post believes in the strong professional skills of the two nominations for this program. The Bulgarian candidates, however, are unlikely to travel without funding assistance. Post respectfully requests USPTO funding for travel costs, lodging and visa application fees. We greatly appreciate USPTO's efforts with this program. ¶5. Nominees' contact information: --Mrs. Gergana Cheshmedzhieva Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, ;Bulgarian Customs Office, Senior Expert 47 G.S. Rakovski Str., 1202 Sofia, Bulgaria Tel. (359-2) 9859-4254 Fax. (359-2) 9859-4082 E-mail: Gergana.Cheshmedjieva@customs.bg Work Experience: 2003 - present: National Customs Agency, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, Administrative Penal Procedures and IPR Protection Department, Sofia, Bulgaria, Senior Expert. --2002-2003: Sofia Customs Administration, Customs Inspector --1998-2002: Patent Office of Bulgaria / "Intellectual property" Journal, Editor. Education: 1993-1997: University for National and World Economy, Intellectual Property Department, Master's Degree in Management of Intellectual Property Rights. Seminars and Training: --October 2006: SECI Regional Center, Fourth Meeting of the Anti-Fraud and Anti-Smuggling Task Force, Bucharest, Romania. --June 2005: AGIS Program of DG Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission, with the active contribution of the Polish Ministry of Finance, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA),Poland. --March 2005: TAIEX, European Commission TAIEX Training on Intellectual and Property Rights Frauds, Athens, Greece. --May 2004: Commercial Law Development Program, US Department of Commerce, Border measures for IPR Protection and Meeting for Regional Cooperation, Dubrovnik, Croatia. --March 2004: Commercial Law Development Program, US Department of Commerce, Enforcement Academy, Washington, DC. --October 2003: Customs 2007 Program Counterfeiting seminar, Brussels, Belgium. --Mr. Rossen Pavlov Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, Chief Expert 47 G.S. Rakovski Str., 1202 Sofia, Bulgaria Tel. (359-2) 9859-4130 Fax. (359-2) 9859-4083 E-mail: Rossen.Pavlov@customs.bg Seminars and Training: --November 2006: OLAF and Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior of Lithuania, Internship for Bulgarian-Romanian official working in the anti-fraud area, Vilnius, Lithuania. --October 2006: OLAF and Austrian Customs Administration International Anti-Fraud Meeting in Customs Audit, Klagenfurt, Austria. --June 2006: OLAF Customs Fraud with Excise Goods seminar, Sofia, Bulgaria. --May 2006: DG TAXUD RIF Risk Management System training, Brussels, Belgium. --February 2006: National Customs Agency training in Customs Intelligence and Risk Management, Sofia, Bulgaria. --April 2005: SECI Center Task Force meeting against Smuggling of Petrol and Petrol Products, Bucharest, Romania. --March 2005: SECI Center Task Force meeting against Cigarettes Smuggling, Bucharest, Romania. --December 2004: European Commission Risk Analysis training in Agricultural, Structural and Cohesion Funds, Brno, the Czech Republic. --April 2004: European Commission Strategic Intelligence and Analysis seminar, Tallinn, Estonia. --June 2003: SECI Center and Hungarian Customs Administration, Task Force Meeting on Stolen Vehicles, Budapest, Hungary. --April 2003: National Customs Agency, the National Educational Center at National Customs Agency, Sofia, Bulgaria. --September 2002: Bulgarian Association for Fight against Piracy of Audiovisual Works and Entertaining Software. Amendments in the legislation, Sofia, Bulgaria. --July 2002: European Commission, Tax and Customs Approach on Risk Management seminar, Granada, Spain. Work Experience: 2001 - present: National Customs Agency, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, Customs Intelligence Department, Chief Expert. Education: 1995 - 2000: Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" Master's Degree in culture anthropology and arts. ¶6. Embassy Sofia Point of Contact (POC) will be Economic Specialist Danko Tonev. Contact information for Mr. Tonev follows: (Office) 359-2-937-5212, (Fax) 359-2-937-5320, and (E-mail) tonevdt@state.gov. BEYRLE