32,760 tins of shoe polish to be destroyed

32,760 tins of shoe polish impounded by Customs at Malta Freeport are to be destroyed after a court established a breach of intellectual property rights. The request for the destruction of the tins was made by S.C. Johnson Inc of the US, owners of the Kiwi brand of shoe polish. The court was told that the tins were being shipped through Malta Freeport in March last year under the name Kime but packaged in the same way as the Kiwi product. Tests in the Netherlands showed that the product was counterfeit. The court upheld pleas by S.C. Johnson that the imported tins were counterfeit and packaged in a way which was meant to cause confusion with the genuine Kiwi product. It therefore ordered their destruction within 90 days.