Taiwan Quick Take: Counterfeiting rife

Police 491 cases of counterfeiting in the first four months of this year, with 385 cases, or 78 percent, taking place over the Internet, according to statistics compiled by the National Police Agency (NPA). Products worth about NT$3.9 billion (US$122.6 million) were seized and 535 suspects were detained, police said. An increasing number of counterfeit products that were previously sold by vendors in night markets or through backroom shops are now being sold on the Internet -- which facilitates faster, more convenient and easily concealed transactions -- officials of the NPA's intellectual property rights task force said. The officials said that online auction sites selling counterfeit products would be the focus of a future police clampdown on piracy and intellectual property rights violations.