Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economic Affairs deciding to strengthen raid action against collusion of counterfeiters from Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong

Source:Commercial Times,2/19/2001

Translated by Corrina Wu

 

    The Directorate General of Customs, Ministry of Finance announced to carry out the programme of protecting the intellectual property right with a view to taking effective raid actions against the collusion of counterfeiters from Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong who severely infringed the legal manufacturers’ interest and right. In this regard, the Board of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has broadened the interpretation on the applicability of provisions governing import/export of product intellectual property rights as provided in Article 28 of the Trade Law, and enabled such provisions to apply to the manufacturers which accept orders in Taiwan but ship the goods from Mainland China.

 

    The so-called “collusion of counterfeiters from Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong” means that manufacturers accept orders in Taiwan and produce counterfeits in the factories they invest in Mainland China, or entrust other manufacturers to produce the counterfeits, and then export those counterfeits directly from Mainland China or through Hong Kong.

 

    From now on, if the competent authorities such as anti-counterfeit groups, judicial authorities and customs discover the information of manufacturers, who accept orders in Taiwan, and also verify that the trademarks used on the goods exported by them from Mainland China have been registered by the trademark owners in Taiwan or are entitled to copyright, the competent authorities will provide such information to the customs so that the customs may strengthen the inspection on those exported goods.