Secondary Revenue Stream for Foreigners?
As some of you know, I keep track of some of the more outragous Intellecutal Property Rights infrigenment in Korea. Apparently KIPO is now offering a bounty to turn in these people. At 10 million a pop, it would be interesting to to find out how to report stuff like this "Louis Vuttion" merchant that haunts the Chongno-3ga subway station in downtown Seoul:
posted by Dram Man @ 6:31 AM
3 Comments:
Korean government agency's are as slippery as the crooks they chase.
Be sure NOT to report your amatuer detective work to the local Korean police, they are paid-off by your local counterfeiter.
Furthermore, you do the risky leg-work and locate a counterfeiter, KIPO prosecutes and only pays the minimal fee: even if they busted a massive fake Prada factory; this is because the KIPO investigators lie about the bounty they find and take the lion's share of your reward.
Finally, the pissed-off counterfeiter and his gangster thugs intimidate and bribe the greedy KIPO personnel to release your identity to them. Next thing you know, your wife or a child is missing.
All isn't as it seems in Korea... be careful who you trust.
I'd trust the miracle-worker "Hwang Woo-suk" quicker than I'd trust a reward-giving Korean government.
Rupert, Rupert, Rupert...where to begin.
On some levels you are right. I have been involoved in investigation and inforcement in Korea for over three years now. I do not comment on past or current cases. If you read closely I am mum on a few issues in the news every now and then.
I have seen much of what you talk about in one way or another. On the otherside of the coin, its kind of funny the documenation a big-nose can get by acting like a dumb tourist and knowing who to go to.
Out of curiosity I will be following up on this with my folks at KIPO. So stay tuned.
As for child missing. More power to those thugs finding her. I never know who my wife has pawned her off on in order to avoid taking care of her yet still have custody. Who knows they might be more luck than me to actualy see her.
Dram,
I will stay tuned.
Not out of any deluded desire for an adventurous probing the back-streets of Seoul ... dressed in black trench-coat and sawed-off shot-gun ... imagining myself as a self-appointed IP bounty hunter.
(but, it would make a cool movie).
No, I'd like to reconfirm how seemingly good ideas (such as government rewards)routinely become co-opted by Korean bureaucrat's sincere desire to do well ... inevitably resulting in their doing well for themselves.
It's a guaranteed outcome ... and the reason why such efforts to substantially curb IP infringement in Korea is just another deceptive non-solution.
Corruption comes from an attitude.
Koreans -- from the meekest masochist to the most arrogant sadist -- have that attitude.
Would you consider this an unfair stereotyping attitude on my part?
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