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TRANSNATIONAL TRADE IN INFRINGING GOODS NOT IM-MUNE FROM TRADEMARK ACT
Taiwan was once a major manufacturing base for intellectual property rights infringing goods. Recently, a global business model has been es-tablished in the piracy industry whereby orders are taken in Taiwan, but goods are manufactured in Mainland China or elsewhere, for delivery worldwide. It has been an important matter of dispute in practice whether international trade in such goods manufactured outside Taiwan is subject to the relevant legislations in Taiwan.
In its 2004 judgment in a criminal case, the Taipei District Court found that in an interna-tional transaction with an Ecuadorian company, the defendant had first made a price offer for counterfeit trademarked goods, and after both sides had negotiated and agreed on a sale price and quantity of goods, the purchaser had trans-ferred funds to Taiwan by telegraphic transfer to complete the purchase. Thus the defendant had entered into a contract within Taiwan for the sale of the infringing goods, and was subject to the Trademark Act. The arrangements for the de-livery of the goods, which had subsequently been shipped from Mainland China to Ecuador, did not affect the determination that the sale had been made in Taiwan.
If the courts take the same view in similar in-fringement cases, it should have a deterrent ef-fect to combat international trade in infringing goods.