Building banner bust

Macau Customs said they had received a tip-off last month regarding some banners on a residential building near the Border Gate in the Northern District that are suspected of violating protected trademarks, according to a statement by the Customs issued last Friday.
Officers from the Intellectual Property Office of the Customs launched an investigation and the banners were taken down by the advertising agency “before the infringement issue deteriorates”.
The authorities claim that they will continue inspecting the area and contact interested parties regarding the protected trademark, in addition to investigating whether any criminal act has been conducted.
The Customs pointed out that the ad in question was related to gaming but stresses that suspected illegal behaviour is related to designs on the banner which resemble trademarks registered with the Macau Economic Services Bureau, and is suspected of violating the Industrial Property Rights Regulation.
The Customs said they firstly approached the building management company who responded with “a negative attitude” and after contacting the building’s units owners’ committee and with some help of a legislator the Customs officers were able to explain the possible illegitimacy of such advertising.
The advertising agency took down the banner “before the matter deteriorated”. The agency also explained that the design of the banner was done outside of Macau and they were unaware that such advertising could infringe any regulation.

Ongoing issue

Last month, in a reply to a legislator’s written enquiry, the government says it had handled a total of 18 cases related to illegal advertisement postings of gaming activities from the beginning of last year for which the total fines applied have amounted to only 30,000 patacas (US$3754.8).
As regulated by local law No. 7/89/M, advertisements that feature gaming activities as their main content are banned in the city. Violation of the rule can result in a fine of 2,000-12,000 patacas for an individual offence or a fine of 5,000-28,000 patacas for a legal person that violates the rule.
In the reply to Legislator Chan Meng Kam’s enquiry by the then-chief of public works, Mr. Wong Chan Tong said that the government had launched a total of 18 cases investigating illegal advertisements related to promoting gaming activities in the past two years, delivered via banners posted outside residential buildings and mobile phone junk messages.
However, when passing through the border gate, many banners and advertisements related to gaming can still be seen, claiming they are authorised to run legal gaming activities online by the government.
The Macau Economic Service – the department responsible for regulating advertising activities – told Business Daily that if advertising is related to gaming, the Bureau will enforce the law according to the Advertising Law.