Newsletter
SALES OUTSIDE LICENSED AREA VIOLATE TRADEMARK ACT
The Trademark Act is silent as to the legal effect of a licensee's violating a provision of a trade-mark licensing agreement that restricts the use of the trademark to a specific geographical area. It has been a matter of great dispute in practice whether the violation of such a contractual pro-vision is merely an issue of breach of contract, or whether it amounts to infringement of trademark.
In a 2001 judgment, the Supreme Court held that if a license is granted for a trademark to be af-fixed only to goods destined for export sale, but goods bearing the trademark are sold within Taiwan without the consent of the trademark owner, such sale does constitute a trademark infringement.