A saleslady of an exhibition booth was convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment yesterday (September 19) at Eastern Magistrates' Courts for selling goods with a forged trademark and offering to supply goods with a false trade description for the purpose of trade or business, in contravention of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO).
Hong Kong Customs received information from a trademark owner in March this year alleging the display of counterfeit jewellery for sale and order at a booth in the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).
After investigation, Customs officers conducted a test-buy operation and successfully bought two counterfeit necklaces as well as ordered 10 counterfeit necklaces. Three counterfeit necklaces were also seized at the booth. The saleslady and another man in charge were arrested and prosecuted. The man was convicted earlier at Eastern Magistrates' Courts and was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
Customs attaches great importance to combating infringing activities at exhibitions and officers will be sent to different exhibitions to conduct inspections. Customs conducted a special operation during the past three days (September 18 to 20) at the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair held at the HKCEC and successfully ordered a batch of suspected counterfeit jewellery.
During the operation, Customs officers seized about 20 items of suspected counterfeit jewellery at three exhibition booths and arrested three men and three women aged between 20 and 40.
Customs will continue to take stringent enforcement action to combat infringing activities. Booth exhibitors are reminded to respect intellectual property rights and not to sell counterfeit goods.
Under the TDO, any person who sells or possesses for sale any goods with a forged trademark commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
Members of the public may report any suspected infringing activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
Ends/Friday, September 20, 2019