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Abstract

The owner of a trade mark has an exclusive right to use it for marking out his goods or services. Any offence against this right is punishable with imprisonment, fine or both. In addition, the judge may decide the counterfeiting and seizure of goods or instruments used in perpetrating the offence. In fact, offences relating to trade marks may take the form of falsifying a trade mark , falsely applying a trade mark, selling goods or possessing or offering for sale goods falsely marked, falsely representing a t rad e mark registered .... etc. Besides the criminal action, an aggrieved owner of a trade mark may institute a civil action. The latter alternative is sometimes considered to be better than the former. In a civil action, the plaintiff is not asked to establish malice, i .e. to prove the intent of the offender to defraud as the case may be i n some criminal actions. Moreover, the aggrieved owner of the trade mark is entitled to be indemnified even though the offence relating to his trade mark has not caused him any actual damage yet. on the other hand, a criminal action can be instituted for defending registered trademarks only, while a civil action may be instituted irrespective of whether the trade mark is registered or not.

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