Newsletter
Parallel Imported Trademarked Products Not Allowed Using Trademark for Distribution
The Trademark Act or any other laws and regulations are silent on the issue of parallel imports of the genuine trademarked products. However, according to the majority of the court opinions in specific trademark infringement cases, parallel imports of the genuine trademarked products and/or distribution of these parallel genuine trademarked products do not constitute trademark infringement and will not violate the Trademark Act or the Fair Trade Act. Besides, the sellers of these products are allowed to use the registered trademarks to promote or distribute these products even if the trademark owner or its license does not give consents to do so.
Nevertheless, if the parallel importers or the sellers use any method to mislead consumers into believing that they are authorized agents or distributors in Taiwan of the trademark owner or have any other relations, they may violate the Fair Trade Act, which governs unfair competition.
Nonetheless, the Intellectual Property Court and the Taipei District Court held in specific civil and criminal infringement cases in 2015 and 2016 respectively that without any consents or license from the trademark owner, the sellers of the parallel imported trademarked products should be prohibited to use the registered trademark to promote or distribute the products although the sale of these products is legitimate.