CTC wins first intellectual property rights case

Ceylon Tobacco Company recently won a landmark case in the history of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), thus securing its legal products/brand names in the light of emerging counterfeits and smuggled products available in the local market, the company said.

CTC filed a private action against one suspect at Magistrate Courts under the Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003, for infringing its Trademark License. The judgement was delivered in favour of the company and the accused was charged a fine of Rs 100,000. CTC filed the case in 2004 and the judgement was delivered recently.

Sri Lanka Customs seized 1,010,000 sticks of counterfeit John Player Gold Leaf cigarettes from a premises belonging to A.C.M. Bazeer, the suspect accused in the case in November 2003. A Customs inquiry revealed that the counterfeit cigarettes were suspected to have been imported into the country on falsified documents without payment of applicable levies payable to Sri Lanka Customs.

At the inquiry held by the Customs Department, the suspect was found guilty, and the cigarettes were confiscated with a fine of Rs. 800,000 being imposed and paid.

Acting on the above information and the escalating incidences of counterfeits being brought into the country, causing confusion among consumers and huge revenue losses to the government, CTC filed its first Intellectual property rights case against A.C.M Bazeer in June 2004.

S.L. Gunasekera with Kalinga Indatissa, Hemantha Gamage and Shivan Kanag Ishwaran instructed by Messrs Julius & Creasy appeared on behalf of CTC while the accused was defended by Daya Perera and Janaprith Fernando.

In a press release CTC highlighted that as the only legal cigarette manufacturers in Sri Lanka, the company needs to secure its brand names, especially in the light of counterfeits, as it poses a threat to its revenue and the huge taxes paid to the government of Sri Lanka.

The IPR case filed and won by CTC confirms the illegal operations being instigated by counterfeiters forgoing the legal tax payments and causing colossal losses to the government.