For the first time in Moldova, the violation of intellectual property was penalized criminally. Two days ago, the Centru Court of Chisinau passed judgment in an unprecedented case of copyright violation and raider appropriation of intellectual property in considerable amounts, IPN reports, quoting a communiqué from the company AlexS&E.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office started a criminal case against the administration of the company Comsales Grup, which, in concert with unknown persons, used the trademark of the company AlexS&E for their own commercial purposes. Experts estimated that damage of about 0.7 million lei was caused to the company. On July 12, 2013, Comsales Grup was charged according to Article 185, Part 2 of the Penal Code of Moldova (violation of the industrial property rights,” it is said in the communiqué.

The Centru Court held that the application of the Prosecutor’s Office to adopt a decision on this unusual case was well-founded and decided to suspend, from August 13, 2013, such principal documents of Comsales Grup as “Technical registration notice” and “Model approval certificate”.

“This is the first case of the kind that the administrative proceedings for violation of intellectual property turned into a criminal case. This is a serious penalty and the awarded damages will have a powerful effect on the producers, consumers and the judicial practice. Consequently, Comsales Grup, which committed different violations earlier too, will be obliged to stop work in legal metrology. Its subsequent acts in this field will be considered illegal,” said AlexS&E.

The foreign capital company AlexS&E informed about the violation of the intellectual property rights in a news conference themed “What will the violation of the international law on the protection of intellectual property lead to?” that was held at IPN Agency on June 22, 2012.