Hong Kong Customs conducted a four-day special operation from October 27 to yesterday (October 30) at AsiaWorld-Expo to combat infringing activities and seized counterfeit goods.
During the operation, Customs officers seized three suspected counterfeit jewellery boxes and a suspected counterfeit bag at two exhibition booths. Two men and one women, aged between 31 and 42, were arrested.
Investigation is ongoing.
Also, Customs officers earlier conducted a test-buy operation at a fair held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and ordered infringing toys from a booth. Three counterfeit toys were seized and a salesman was arrested and prosecuted. He was convicted for contravening the Copyright Ordinance and the Trade Descriptions Ordinance and sentenced to three weeks' imprisonments suspended for one year and a fine of $4,000 on October 22 at Eastern Magistrates' Courts.
Customs will continue to take stringent enforcement action against infringing activities. Booth exhibitors are reminded to respect intellectual property rights and not to sell infringing goods.
Under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, any person who sells, or possesses for sale, any goods with a forged trademark commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
Under the Copyright Ordinance, the maximum penalty for any person who sells or possesses an infringing copy of a copyright work with a view to selling it is a fine of $50,000 per infringing copy and imprisonment for four years upon conviction.
Members of the public may report any suspected infringing activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
Ends/Thursday, October 31, 2019
