(Trinidad Express) People who trade in pirated CDs and DVDs could now find themselves charged under the Trademarks Bill, as well as for copyright infringements under the Copyright Act.
Piloting the Trademarks Bill in the Senate yesterday at the International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain, Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar said the bill makes it an offence for anyone to use the same or similar mark of any product or service for which it has not been registered.
“If someone attaches the proprietor’s mark or similar mark to any good or service for which that mark has not been registered, he or she would be guilty of an offence,” he said.
He said those who copy songs and movies onto discs without any label can only be charged under the Copyright Act.
“But if such persons put a label on the CD or DVD jacket, as indeed we have started to see, and that label carries a producer’s registered trademark, that vendor can be charged under the Trademarks Act as well as under the Copyright Act,” he said.
Under the Infringement Proceedings cited under the act, the goods can be destroyed and the person could even be made to pay damages.
Ramadhar said the bill permits police officers to arrest without warrant those who possess for trade, or manufacture, sell, or offer or expose for sale in the public place goods to which a registered trademark is falsely applied.
The bill also permits Customs officers designated by the Comptroller of Customs and Excise subject to a warrant to stop, search or board any conveyance and in which the officer reasonably suspects there are goods to which a registered trademark has been falsely applied, and remove or detain any such goods or anything that is likely to contain evidence of an offence of an infringement of the trademark.
He said the bill also deals with the use of trademarks on the Internet.
Because the power to search and seize goods affects the right to enjoyment of property, the bill required a special majority, he said.
Ramadhar said the bill would introduce a broader definition of trademarks, which would now include scents, sounds and tastes, provided that they are capable of being graphically represented.
“If and when our manufacturers of food and snacks develop a new and unique tasting product, they can have a trademark for taste.”
He cited chadon beni as having a unique taste.
“If we had producers of fragrances which could develop scents using our natural flora and gain protection of those scents. Local tonka bean is used as a additive to some of the best perfumes in the world and so I look forward to the day when one of our manufacturers would come up with a scent that would be a blessing economically to this nation,” he said.
