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.
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