Newsletter
IMITATION OF MERCHANDISE BARCODES CONSTITUTES FORGERY
Merchandise barcodes are barcoded identifica-tion numbers for merchandise respectively is-sued by each national member organizations of the International Article Numbering Association (in Taiwan, the Article Numbering Center of the ROC). Merchandise barcodes comprise a coun-try code, a company code, an item reference number and a check number.
In the past, most of the courts in Taiwan have taken the view that because consumers do not identify products on the basis of merchandise barcodes, imitation of such barcodes does not constitute forgery. But in a recent criminal ap-peal judgment, the Supreme Court held that when read by computer equipment, merchandise barcodes can uniquely identify the individual products of specific manufacturers in specific countries, and are equivalent in international trade to the identifying marks of commercial companies; when read by computer equipment, imitated barcodes may cause business to mistake products for those manufactured by a specific company in a specific country. Hence imitation of barcodes constitutes forgery.