A male person-in-charge of an exhibition booth and two salesladies were convicted today (January 9) at Eastern Magistrates' Courts for offering to sell infringing goods for the purpose of trade or business, in contravention of the Copyright Ordinance. One of the salesladies was also convicted for exhibiting in public infringing goods. They were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from two weeks to three weeks.
Hong Kong Customs earlier conducted a special operation at the Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre to combat infringing activities at the exhibition. Customs officers successfully ordered infringing toys at two booths and respectively seized four infringing toys and one infringing toy.
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 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.
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.
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, January 9, 2020