Overview

Trademarks fall under an intellectual property regime that is often violated. Indeed, according to data issued by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the various complaints that were submitted to the Directorate-General of Intellectual Property (“Directorate-General”) in 2019 comprised 34 trademark infringement complaints, followed by seven copyright infringement complaints, two patent infringement complaints and four industrial design infringement complaints.[1]

Trademark infringements that result from the unlawful use of other parties’ trademarks are mainly carried out in order to reap economic benefits from consumers who have a preference for purchasing products that are labeled with the infringed trademarks in question. In this context, goods that feature stolen trademarks are sometimes purchased intentionally and sometimes not.  As a result, owners of registered trademarks may suffer economic losses, both in terms of decreasing sales and damage to both brand reputation and consumer trust, due to the sale of low-quality products.[2]