Taiwood Company was complained for its act of spreading false rumors
Chinese Taipei
Case:
Taiwood Company was complained for its act of spreading false rumors
Key Words:
spread of false rumors, patent right infringement
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of December 21, 1994 (the 167th Commission Meeting); Disposition (84) Kung Chu Tsu 014
Industry:
Other Plastic Products (2509)
Relevant Laws:
Summary:
1. For business competition in the industry of picture frame products, Taiwood Company is suspected to have used the semi-finished products made by itself based on the design of its new design patent No.: 34333 and its copyrighted artistic work for picture frame ornament art (Copyright Registration No.: 112) as the counterfeits and alleges that they are made by Da Hang Enterprise (hereinafter referred to as “Da Hang”). Taiwood also brought a criminal accusation against Da Hang in the court with the intent to isolate and force Da Hang to wind up its business and to withdraw from the plastic ornamented picture frame market under the unendurable annoyance arising from the time-consuming judicial proceedings and the harassment of rumors against it. In addition, while the criminal litigation is pending in the court, Taiwood Company has made and spread false statements to Wei-Cherng Modeling Factory and I-Bao Company with the intent to cause damages to the business reputation of Da Hang and urge those two companies to terminate their supply, purchase and/or other trade connections with Da Hang.
2. Investigation reveals that the practice of Da Hang to disseminate, in large quantity, pictorial catalogs of its products has resulted in significant annoyance to Taiwood Company and forced the latter to sell its own products at reduced prices. In order to get rid of such annoyance, Taiwood Company has stated, without first obtaining evidence and information verifying the involvement of Da Hang in the act of infringing upon any patent right and copyright of Taiwood Company, to the existing and prospective trading counterparts of Da Hang that Da Hang has committed counterfeiting and infringing acts. Furthermore, in order to exclude trade competition and to maintain its present market share irrespective of the fact that it had made false allegations regarding the source and the proceedings of its acquisition of the semi-finished products allegedly to be the counterfeits made by Da Hang., Taiwood Company still filed a complaint with the Prosecutors Office of Chiayi District Court of Chinese Taipei (A public prosecution has been subsequently instituted by a Public Prosecutor). In its complaint, Taiwood Company alleged that the sample product counterfeited by Da Hang was obtained from a US firm named "Cannery Corporation". However, a further investigation conducted by the FTC reveals that the said US firm does not exist at all. Therefore, this proves that it is a false evidence.
3. In this case, Taiwood Company takes advantage of its influence power and business relations in the picture frame industry without first obtaining or confirming the alleged fact that Da Hang infringed the copyright and/or patent right of Taiwood Company and made false statements to the trading counterparts of both itself and Da Hang. Such action had misled the trading counterparts of Da Hang to believe that Da Hang is a suspectable counterfeiter, and thus has caused the existing and potential trading counterparts of Da Hang to have terminated or cut off the existing and prospective business connections with Da Hang, which has in turn obviously damaged the business reputation of Da Hang. Consequently, the act of Taiwood Company is considered to have violated Article 19(i) of the Fair Trade Law prohibiting the act of "boycott" and Article 22 of the Fair Trade Law prohibiting the act of "making or publicizing any false statement which is likely to cause damage to another person's business reputation".
Summarized by Hou, W. S.
Supervised by Shih, G. T.
＄: For information of translation, click here
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