Representatives of Europe's leading luxury branded goods and Taiwan's law enforcement agencies are to team up in the fight against counterfeiters, officials told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Senior representatives from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) yesterday sought assistance from members of the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei to help them identify fake goods more quickly during a closed-door luncheon in Taipei yesterday.
"We reported to members of the chamber that we will not only focus on [audio, movie and software] disk protection this year," said IPO deputy director-general Jack Lu (盧文祥).
"This year, luxury goods and Internet crime are another two areas to protect," he said.
The European chamber, which includes representatives from the Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Burberry brands, is an excellent source of experts who know how to spot a fake, Lu said. These experts can train police officers and prosecutors how to do the same, he added.
The IPO and the chamber set up a series of training seminars for police and prosecutors last year, and both organizations made commitments to continue them this year.
"There is still more need for training police and prosecutors. There will be follow-ups this year," said Guy Wittich, the chamber's chief executive officer.
Not only do officers need to spot fakes, they need to do it fast. By law, a suspect can only be held for 24 hours until a charge is brought, so having access to an expert is critical in deciding a case, Wittich said.
The chamber and the IPO agreed yesterday to set up a contact within the chamber that police can reach if they are unable to decide whether suspected goods are fake or not.
Identifying a fake is even more critical when goods arrive in Taiwan. A customs officer may only have 30 seconds to decide if a shipment is suspicious, so training is essential, Wittich added.
Only last week police busted a counterfeiting operation selling knock-off Burberry clothes through the Yahoo-Kimo Web site.
"At first glance it is often hard to tell whether an item is real or not on a Web site as the photo may be of the genuine product, which in itself is already a violation of copyright," said John Eastwood, co-chairman of the chamber's Intellectual Property Committee.
"Internet fraud cases are more difficult to investigate. There has to be a lot of research done before a physical address is found," he said.
The IPO has set up a special Internet crime team of up to 30 officers within its existing IPR protection task force of 220, and plans to add more than 30 new officers to that team from outside the task force, Lu said. The government also offers rewards to people who inform on illegal web sites selling counterfeit goods, he added.
A worrying new development for the Europeans and police officers is an increasing number of everyday brands that are being targeted by criminals.
"Branded goods is a very large category and goes as far as groceries," Wittich said. "Consumer goods is a category of counterfeit products that is increasing rapidly. From fake shampoos to food and alcoholic beverages, huge sums of money are involved."
Fakes of lesser known brands are much harder to spot, he said, pledging more support in this area.
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