The Tainan District Court on Wednesday last week sentenced a volunteer soldier who sold unlicensed cartoon stickers on an online platform to 50 days in prison for contravening the Trademark Act (商標法), saying that her selling counterfeit and pirated goods could tarnish Taiwan’s international reputation regarding intellectual property rights.
The 23-year-old soldier, surnamed Liu (劉) and who lives in Tainan, opened an online shop on e-commerce platform Shopee two years ago and began selling stickers and pins featuring famous Japanese cartoon characters that she purchased on Chinese online shopping service Taobao, with each item priced between NT$40 and NT$50, the court said.
The popularity of her business was noticed by police, who identified the pirated products after consulting the legal owners of the characters’ trademarks, including Japanese firms Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co and Sanrio Co, it said.
Police searched Liu’s home in February last year, finding 600 pirated products, it added.
Liu infringed on the rights of the trademark owners, and her trade in counterfeit and pirated goods posed a risk of influencing other nations’ perception of Taiwan regarding intellectual property rights, the court said.
In addition, Liu has not reached settlements with the trademark owners, it said.
However, as Liu has no prior criminal record and has paid all of her illicit gains to the court, totaling NT$10,780, she was sentenced to 50 days in jail, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$1,000 per day in prison, the court said.
Article 97 of the act stipulates that anyone who knowingly sells another person’s goods without permission shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and/or a fine not exceeding NT$50,000, with the same penalties applicable to acts performed through electronic media or on the Internet.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS