Newsletter
FALSIFICATION OF PRODUCT MODEL NUMBERS IS FORGERY
In the past, the Intellectual Property Office has always taken the view that product model num-bers lack the distinctiveness required of a trademark under Article 5 Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law. In general they cannot be reg-istered as trademarks, unless they have acquired distinctiveness in identifying a source of goods through use in trade, and thus satisfy the condi-tions of Article 5 Paragraph 2 of the law. The Fair Trade Commission and the courts have also taken the view in most cases that product model numbers are not "trade dress" of a product as protected under the Fair Trade Law. Therefore, in the past virtually no remedies have been available for plagiarism of product model num-bers.
However, the Taiwan High Court, in a 2002 criminal appeal in an infringement case involv-ing a computer central processing unit, held that both a trademark and a product speed code in-dicating the speed of the CPU were part of the trade dress of the goods in question. Any unau-thorized use of a trademark registered by another on the packaging of goods (regardless of whether the goods themselves are genuine or counterfeit) constitutes infringement of the trademark; and where a product speed code that denotes the speed of a CPU is printed on the CPU, it is an indication of the speed and quality with which the product executes computer system functions, and should be regarded as a document within the meaning of Article 220 of the Criminal Code. If an existing product speed code indicating the CPU speed is ground off and a code indicating a higher speed is printed in its place, this is suffi-cient to cause loss to other persons, and as such constitutes the offence of forgery of a private document under Articles 220 and 222 of the Criminal Code, as well as the offence of mis-representation of the quality of goods under Ar-ticle 255 Paragraph 1 of the code.
The Supreme Court also held in another 2002 criminal appeal that falsification of a CPU speed code constituted forgery under the Criminal Code.