Enforcing your IP

Pages13-14
Customs WATCH-OUT S in Macao
In many cases Cu stoms will not be able to e nforce the law witho ut your cooperation .
Alert them ever y time you are aware of a ser ious infringement of your i ntellectual
propert y, namely whenever someone is mak ing, expor ting, impor ting, or selling to t he
public copies of your pr oducts wit hout your author isation. You can do it at any t ime via
the hotline +853 28 96 5001 or fax +853 289 6 5003.
Macao Customs has wide powers of search and seizure, powers of arrest and discretion on whether to prosecture
an infringer.
5. Enforcing your IP
In the case of your IP assets being infringed in Macao, there
are two main avenues of enforcement which you can consider:
civil litigation and criminal prosecution (as outlined below).
Customs seizures are described separately in Part 4 above.
Civil Litigation
The main aim of civil actions is to recover damages. Lawsuits
concerning intellectual property matters are generally led
with the Judicial Base Court. You may sue in the civil court
whoever causes you damages by using your IP assets without
your authorisation or by breaching a contract (for example a
license to use a trade mark or a condentiality clause in a
labour contract). In the case of a breach of contract you can
also sue to force the other party to pay any contractual nes
that were included in the contract.
When claiming the payment of damages you will be expected to
prove in court the amount of the actual damages suered.
You will have to be represented in court by a lawyer licensed to
practice in Macao (see contacts of the Macao Law Society below).
Criminal Prosecution
The most serious forms of IP infringement are crimes
(for example, making or selling to the public, without the
authorisation of the IP owner, copies of a product protected
by an IP right). The main criminal punishments applicable in
Macao for IP infringements are nes and jail terms of up to four
years. The court may simultaneously apply other sanctions,
for example banning the infringer from a certain professional
activity or closing down their establishment.
13

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT