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ON-SCREEN DISPLAY OF TRADEMARK IMAGES QUALI-FIES AS TRADEMARK USE
Article 6 Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law de-fines use of a trademark as its use on goods or their packaging, containers, labels, instructional literature, price lists or other similar articles which are possessed, displayed or disseminated for marketing purposes. However, there has been disagreement in court opinions as to whether causing the image of a trademark to appear on a television or computer screen, for example by the operation of a game console, CD player or computer, constitutes a trademark use. In a 1998 criminal judgment in a trademark in-fringement case, the Panchiao District Court, citing a written interpretation dated 18 April 1998 by the Intellectual Property Office, held that such forms of display are sufficient to enable purchasers in general to recognize such images as identifying the source of goods, and should be interpreted as falling within the meaning of "other similar articles" as referred to in said Ar-ticle 6 Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law. Hence such display does constitute a use of a trademark.