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The Act is supplementary to existing remedies available to intellectual property right owners for protecting and enforcing their rights. With its streamlined procedure for enabling law enforcement authorities to seize and detain goods and instigate criminal prosecutions in respect of counterfeit goods, the Act is a useful and practical addition to the armoury of the owners of intellectual property rights who suffers from the unwelcome attention of counterfeiters.
The basic approach of the Act is to impose a relatively low threshold for the availability of relief (and thus to facilitate taking prompt and effective action to curtail dealing in counterfeit goods with a minimum of formalities) and to reduce as far as possible the potential liability of the police or other inspectors in seizing counterfeit goods; the risk of action being taking against police and other inspectors for unjustified seizure and detention of goods is thus reduced.
On the other hand, responsibility for the action of seizing and detaining goods is placed squarely at the door of the complainant. If action is taken without justification, or the position of a dispossessed person is unduly prejudiced, responsibility and liability accrue to the complainant. Be it on his head if he acts in an unjustified, improper or reckless manner in causing the seizure and detention of alleged counterfeit goods. This approach ought to go some way towards dispelling the reluctance of the police to take effective action in intellectual property matters due to their unwillingness to expose themselves to possible damage claims, and at the same time inhibit intellectual property rights holders from action irresponsibly in enforcing their rights or perceived rights.
