Musica guilty of trading in counterfeit goods

The magistrate at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court found that Musica was negligent and failed to take all reasonable steps to avoid engaging in the sale of counterfeit goods, the NPA said.

During March 2007, the Intellectual Property Enforcement group of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) conducted searches at Musica stores (Menlyn and Centurion). This was after South African Federation Against Copyright Theft (SAFACT) received information that the stores were dealing in counterfeit goods.

During the searches, the DTI inspectors found counterfeit Sony memory cards and dual shock controllers for PlayStation games.

It came out during the trial that Musica was getting stock of similar goods from the authorised distributor SterKinekor for years. During the period October 2005 to December 2006 Musica stopped buying stock from SterKinekor.

The national game buyer of Musica entered into 'business dealings' with Dolphin Enterprises CC, who started supplying Musica with counterfeit memory cards and dual shock controllers bearing the Sony trademark.

The owner of Dolphin Enterprises admitted under oath that he was not the authorised supplier, importer or distributor of Sony products.

However, the national game buyer of Musica who was the defence witness stated, also under oath, that he did not know that SterKinekor was the authorised distributor of Sony products nationwide.

"It was clear from the evidence that Musica did not do a background check of the Close Corporation they conducted business with," the NPA said in a statement.

"The judgment of the court is welcomed by the State, and we strongly believe that it will send a strong message to other stores engaging in selling counterfeit goods and to the public at large. Sentencing has been postponed to 6 August 2008," it added.

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