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Counterfeit sports items, kites seized during police raids

Police seized a large quantity of counterfeit brand-name sports garments and kites during several raids in Tainan County and Taipei County in the past few days, police sources said yesterday.

Members of the National Police Agency's Intellectual Property Rights Police (IPRP) task force came upon a stall at a traditional market in Tainan selling a wide range of counterfeit brand-name sportswear products, including Nike, Adidas, Puma and Yankee, sources said.

IPRP officers confiscated a total of 1,500 counterfeit brand-name items and arrested the stall operator, surnamed Chung, for trademark infringement. The products were being sold for only NT$100 a piece.

The sources said that following several police crackdowns on pirated goods in the Wufenpu shopping area of Taipei City, wholesalers have been increasingly distributing counterfeit goods through markets in the southern part of the country.

IPRP officers also discovered that a number of counterfeit kites decorated with patented cartoons such as Hello Kitty, Pikachu and Hamsterz were being sold at scenic spots in Kaohsiung and Pingtung, the sources said. The kites, however, did not have child safety labels or marks indicating they were genuine products.

After tracking down the origin of the products, IPRP officers descended on a manufacturing plant in Jhonghe City (中和) and a warehouse in Taishan Township (泰山), both in Taipei County. Two suspects were detained and more than 20,000 counterfeit kites, as well as manufacturing equipment, were seized.

The value of the merchandise seized was estimated at more than NT$10 million (US$302,000).
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