Ghost money, traditionally burned as an offering to ancestors or the spiritual world, may soon be governed by a “central bank,”as one manufacturer has registered and obtained copyrights for the “Bank of Heaven” and the “Bank of Hell” to prohibit competitors from printing the widely used terms.
The two terms have been used by almost all paper money manufacturers in the country for as long as many of them can remember.
Lai Ting-yuan (賴丁源) recently sent out legal warnings to ghost money sales outlets demanding that they stop selling ghost money bearing the names of the two “banks” that were not printed at his factory. The letter told the stores to cease within seven days or face copyright violation lawsuits.
PHOTO: WANG SHU-HUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lai’s competitors have said that using the two “bank” names has long been a practice in the industry.
In Lai’s letter, he said that he had registered the “banks” with the Ministry of the Interior as early as 1996, spending a lot of money to advertise the brand. But in 2006, one of Lai’s competitors, Chang Yung-song (張永松), applied with the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the copyright of the two “banks,” which Lai said severely impacted his sales.
Lai said he filed an appeal with the Intellectual Property Office against Chang’s claim, and that on June 16 the office said Chang’s copyrights had been revoked.
Lai said he then obtained the copyrights on Aug. 1.
In his letters, Lai said that copyright infringement called for prosecution and urged competitors to stop violating his rights.
However, other manufacturers cited examples of the name being used as early as 1963, saying the copyright was unfair.
In light of other ghost money sales outlets’ complaints, the Intellectual Property Office said it would conduct an investigation for the origin of the names, adding that if the office finds that the banks indeed existed before Lai, his copyright ownership would be withdrawn.
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