Customs Anti-Smuggling Act Penalty for Intellectual Property Infringement Raised to 300 Million NT Dollars.

The amended Customs Anti-Smuggling Act has been put in effect. Cases of counterfeiting that infringe upon intellectual property rights, false reports of the importing goods to the customs and submission of fraudulent invoices will be receiving heavier punishment. The amount of fine is greatly increased from the original NT$30,000 ~ NT$90,000 to NT$3,000,000. According to Article 39bis, if the reported importing and exporting goods contain those that are not personal imports and infringe upon the patent rights, trademark rights or copyrights, a fine from double to triple of the goods’ price will be imposed. The customs may confiscate the goods.

 

The Directorate General of Customs indicates, the U.S. Government has moved Taiwan to the general observation list of the special 301 report, which shows the Customs’ effort in tracking down piracy in recent years has obtained positive recognition. Based on the Customs’ statistics in 2004, 63,264 imports are suspected of trademark infringement, 3,430 exports are suspected of trademark infringement, 66,907 imported pirated discs, and no exporting of pirated discs are found.

 

Pursuant to the information announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs, Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the amount of counterfeits seized by the U.S. Customs from our country has decreased from 26 million and 5 hundred thousand U.S. dollars in 2002 to 6 hundred and 10 thousand U.S. dollars in 2003. It furthermore decreases to 60 thousand dollars in the first half year of 2004. Our country is no longer one of the major ten counterfeits exporting countries.  (2005.02)                                                                                                      

CYJ/CHT