M. Japan
M1. Japanese Copyright and Trade Mark laws provide for an offence of infringement.
M2. The penalty for trade mark infringement is imprisonment for up to 5 years just recently the fine has been increased from ¥5 million (approximately NZ$75,000) to ¥15,000,000 (approximately NZ$2,000,000). The corresponding penalty for copyright infringement is imprisonment of up to 3 years and a fine of up to ¥1 million (approximately NZ$15,000).
M3. There are also offences for patent infringement and industrial design infringement and the penalties are the same as for trade mark and copyright infringement respectively.
M4. There is provision for seizure, forfeiture and destruction of infringing goods and materials and implements for their production.
M5. Latest available figures show that in 1996 there were 969 cases of counterfeits. It is reported that most counterfeiting activity is importing by foreigners and sales at street stalls by foreigners in Japan.
M6. The Japanese Customs Tariff Law provides for applications to be lodged with Customs to suspend the release into free circulation of goods which involve infringement of trade marks and copyright. In 1996 there were 3486 seizures, mostly for trade mark counterfeiting.
M7. Japanese trade mark law and patent law permit parallel importation, and this may also be the case with copyright law. It appears however that this situation does not encourage import of counterfeit goods. For language and cultural reasons English language products are less acceptable to Japanese consumers. Most software sold and used in Japan needs to be in the Japanese language, and most music CDs require at least Japanese labelling to be readily saleable. Distribution channels in Japan are in practice able to be far more tightly controlled by established businesses than is usual in western countries.
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