The Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) is the only department responsible for taking criminal sanctions against copyright and trade mark infringements in Hong Kong. We adopt a two-pronged enforcement strategy against the supply side as well as the retail end of pirated and counterfeit goods. On the supply side, we focus our enforcement efforts on fighting these illegal activities at the import and export, manufacturing, wholesale and distribution levels. At the retail level, we are taking repeated and sustained enforcement actions against the retail black spots in order to eradicate street level piracy and counterfeiting activities.

Moreover, C&ED has been actively enforcing the end-user criminal provisions of the Copyright Ordinance. The Copyright Ordinance was amended in April 2001 to fight against illegal recording in public entertainment venues and make it illegal to use pirated computer software, movie, musical sound and visual recording and television drama in the course of business. In July 2008, new provisions were introduced whereby the directors and partners of an organization may also be held criminally liable when the organization has committed an offence relating to possession of infringing computer programmes, movies, television dramas or musical sound or visual recordings in business.

With the advent of the Internet and the rapid expansion of online services, IPR infringement has now found its way to the cyberspace. Addressing this emerging trend, we established a 7-man Anti-Internet Piracy Team (AIPT) in April 2000 to investigate Internet-based infringement activities. A Computer Forensic Laboratory was set up in November 2000 to provide technical support to the AIPT, including forensic computing and the examination and preservation of digital evidence contained in the computer systems seized by the AIPT. In April 2005, we established the second 7-man AIPT to enhance enforcement against infringing activities in the cyberspace, especially the sale of counterfeiting goods on websites.