Hong Kong customs officers have cracked a total of 12 cases, leading to the seizure of about 9,400 HK dollars (1,208 U.S. dollars) worth of copyright infringing toys and the arrest of 13 people over the past four days.

The cases of copyright infringement were found at the four-day Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair 2007, which ended Thursday, said a statement released Friday by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The operation was carried out under the so-called Fast Action Scheme, and this was the third time that the scheme has been implemented by Hong Kong Customs and Hong Kong Brands Protection Alliance (HKBPA) at a large-scale exhibition in Hong Kong.

"With the full support from HKBPA, Hong Kong Customs officers are able to speed up the investigation and prosecution process, which is critical to suppressing copyright infringement activities in which offenders might attempt to take advantage of the short exhibition period factor," said Edmond Cheng, Head of Intellectual Property Investigation (Operations) Group of HK Customs.

He noted that most of the exhibitors are law-abiding, and exhibitions infringement activities are not serious in Hong Kong, adding that more and more HKBPA members are becoming aware of the Fast Action Scheme, and have filed IPR (intellectual property rights) information about their products with the Alliance's database before exhibiting them.

"Hence, Hong Kong Customs could make use of their database to launch speedy investigations," Cheng said.

Any person who contravenes the Copyright Ordinance of Hong Kong is liable to prosecution. The maximum penalty is a fine of 50,000 HK dollars (6426 U.S. dollars) for each infringing copy and imprisonment for four years upon conviction.

Source: Xinhua