Article 17.- Competence of violation-handling agencies
The competence to apply administrative measures of the violation-handling agencies defined in Clause 3, Article 200 of the Intellectual Property Law is specified as follows:
1. Scientific and technological inspectorates shall have the competence to handle administrative violations in the domain of industrial property, which are committed in production, trading, exploitation, advertisement or circulation, except for violations in the import or export of goods.
2. Market management offices shall have the competence to handle violations in the domain of industrial property, which are committed in the circulation of goods and commercial business in the market.
3. Customs offices shall have the competence to handle violations in the domain of industrial property, which are committed in the import or export of goods.
4. Police offices shall have the competence to detect, verify, gather information and evidence on violations in the domain of industrial property, and notify them to the violation-handling agencies defined in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article and handle violations in the domain of industrial property;
5. Provincial-level People’s Committees and district-level People’s Committees shall have the competence to handle violations in the domain of industrial property which are committed in their respective localities whereby the sanctioning levels, forms and handling measures applicable to those acts fall beyond the competence of the agencies defined in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article.