Merit Entertainment's campaign against copiers continues with the relentless pursuit of a number of organisations that have marketed counterfeit Merit games in several countries.
The company’s director of government relations, Bob Fay, told InterGame that Merit has reached settlements with two high-profile companies caught with copies in Malaysia over the past two or three months, and two other settlements are pending with other companies.
Nine complete copies of Merit Force products were recently seized in raids conducted in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia’s Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. The raids took place at two retail shops and the evidence seized is currently being held by the authorities.
“We have been conducting investigations in various retail outlets for months and the operation of Merit copies was discovered in several of these locations,” said Fay. The investigation is still under way.
Settlements and investigations are also pending in other countries in Asia. At the same time, Fay has been active in mainland China.
Recently, the police agreed to investigate two major targets. Ongoing work in South Africa has unearthed ‘three or four’ instances of copies being sold and the investigations are close to fruition. Nearer to home, the company has two investigations under way in the US and one in Canada.
"Merit is determined not to permit the theft of its intellectual property," said Fay. "We plan to continue to investigate every instance of potential copying which is put before us and if satisfied that illegal trading has taken place we will use the local authorities to bring the criminals to book."
