Police Successfully Intercepts Export of Pirated Copyright Items Built by Oversized Building Blocks

The Criminal Investigation Brigade under the Second Special Police Corps (the “Brigade”) ferreted out the first case involving pirated items for export that infringe upon the copyright held by a local company devoted to cultural creation, C&S Creation Ltd. (“C&S Creation”).  Engaged in creativity by oversized building bricks toys, C&S Creation found that three former employees were suspected of ganging up with their cooperative vendor to pirate C&S Creation’s exhibits of modular objects built by life-sized building bricks and plan to put these pirated exhibits on display in China.  C&S Creation thus filed a report with the Brigade and the pirated lookalikes were intercepted and withheld in container in time before they were to be exported to China.

According to the Brigade, there have been more and more exhibitions of diverse subject matters held in Taiwan.  In addition to cooperation with foreign well-known art museums or exhibitions held under licensing, Taiwan’s cultural creation industry has been holding exhibitions to show their original works and further providing license for exhibition of their works in other countries, a manifestation of Taiwan’s soft power of cultural creativity to the world. 

The Brigade conducted intense investigation on this case and then initiated a raid on the factory where these pirated exhibits were made after locating the factory.  However, the Brigade found that these pirated exhibits had been transported out of the factory to be exported to China.  Obstruction the police’s seizure also came from the three suspects who claimed their ignorance of the information relating to customs declaration, warehousing and storage, shipping schedule of the pirated exhibits, which were later identified through cooperation by and between the police and relevant authorities.  The Brigade reinitiated a raid and successfully found the infringing exhibits at the container terminal in Keelung to have them seized.

According to the Brigade, the pirated version seized in this case, titled the amphitheater of Rome, is much smaller than the genuine one in size, and the features and overall proportion thereof make it clear that it is an illegal reproduction and infringes upon the creator’s IP rights.  The investigation result shows that the three suspects violate the first paragraph of Article 91 of the Taiwan Copyright Act by embezzling and reproducing the copy and design drawing in regard to C&S Creation’s exhibits and thus should be referred to the relevant prosecutors office for investigation.    (August 2015)
/CCS