Four individuals prosecuted for Copyright Act violation by selling pirated navigation app

　The Intellectual Property Rights Investigation Corps under the Criminal Investigation Bureau announced on October 16, 2024 that they uncovered an infringement case involving a well-known navigation software under the direction of the Taiwan Changhua District Prosecutors Office.  In this case, the infringing vendor, surnamed Ho (hereinafter “Ho”) cracked the infringed navigation program, the NaviKing app, which is developed by the infringed copyright holder and installed it on vehicle Android devices without the copyright holder’s prior consent or authorization.  Ho promoted the cracked app on social media and also set up several physical stores across Taiwan to offer installation service of and to sell the infringing Android devices.  

　The investigation found that Ho imported from China a large number of vehicle Android devices and set up four physical stores across Taiwan (in Taichung City, Changhua County, and Tainan City) to offer the service of installing the infringing vehicle devices containing pirated navigation software.  Ho started this business from August 2019 and had sold more than one thousand infringing devices until the police crackdown, generating illicit profits more than TWD11 million and thus seriously infringing the legal interests of copyright.  

　After the taskforce’s long-term surveillance on Ho and evidence collection, the taskforce got hold of the information regarding the locations of Ho’s physical stores and other relevant premises.  In July 2024, the taskforce conducted raid actions on the four stores and residence under a warrant, apprehending Ho and the other three suspects.  The suspects were referred to the Changhua District Prosecutors Office on charge of Copyright Act violation after the police questioning.  

　According the complainant’s authentication results, the seizure were in forms of physical devices and digital files in a substantial quantity, including multiple vehicle device models and six types of infringing navigation software products, which involved the estimated market value in an approximate amount of TWD1.5 billion.  (Released 2024.10.17)  
/CCS