The Highest-Ever Damages For Piracy of Microsoft’s Xbox.

Game provider’s conduct of pirating Microsoft’s Xbox software for sale was uncovered and Microsoft claimed for damages in an amount of more than NT$350,000,000.  Taipei District Court on October 26, 2005 handed down a judgment that the pirating game provider should pay NT$36,830,000 as damages, a record-breaking damages amount awarded by Taiwan court against piracy rings.

 

For the criminal part of this case, Taiwan High Court sentenced defendant A to 16 months in prison for the offense of violating the Copyright Law and Trademark Law and put defendant A on probation for 5 years.  This judgment has become final.  The other defendant B was sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment and was put on probation for 5 years, while defendant B appealed this judgment. Now the appeal is pending at the Supreme Court.

 

Microsoft held that an application for trademark registration for Xbox game software has been granted and approved in Taiwan and two defendants should pay damages in an amount of NT$86,000,000 which is equivalent to 1500 times of the unit retail price according to Article 63 of the Trademark Law.  In addition, for their violation of the Copyright Law, the two defendants should also jointly pay damages in the amount of NT$271,000,000 calculated by the rate of NT$1,000,000 each kind of software plus NT$1,000,000 for the injury to Microsoft’s reputation. The amount of damages total NT$358,100,000.

 

The responsible judge ruled that in the 271 kinds of software uncovered from defendant A, each kind of pirated software included only 1 to 2 pieces (287 pieces in total), so it is more appropriate to set the damages in the amount of NT$28,700,000 equivalent to 500 times of the unit retail price of the uncovered software as stipulated in the Trademark Law.  Besides, for Copyright Law violation, damages in an amount of NT$8,130,000 calculated at the rate of NT$30,000 each kind of software was awarded against the defendants.  Moreover, it was ruled that the main text of the judgment and an apology notice shall be run in newspapers.  (2005.10)

CYJ /CCS