Enforcing your IP

• Pages: 13-14

Customs WATCH-OUTS in Macao

In many cases Customs will not be able to enforce the law without your cooperation.

Alert them every time you are aware of a serious infringement of your intellectual

property, namely whenever someone is making, exporting, importing, or selling to the

public copies of your products without your authorisation. You can do it at any time via

the hotline +853 2896 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.

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