The Shanghai Pudong Court made an announcement on 21st October 2021, where it sentenced 69 defendants to imprisonment with fines. The infringement and fine were not the same for everyone, it ranged from eight months to five years and nine months with fines ranging from 5,000 RMB to 11.7 million RMB (~$1.8 million USD). They were alleged of committing the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks or the crime of selling commodities bearing counterfeit registered trademarks of renowned brands.
It was not a single case but a series of cases were involved in counterfeiting designer clothes. The court found after trial: “From January 2018 to July 2020, defendant Liu and his wife, Zhang, organized employees of the company or entrusted other processing factories to process and produce counterfeit clothes of big brands making sales amounting to more than 42.4 million RMB.
This crime was planned in a very professional manner where every member has their own defined role. Liu was responsible for running a company, and Zhang handled purchasing genuine clothes which were later reproduced by the own clothing design office of the company. Such reproduced collected was then entrusted to a factory for its wholesale production. Finally, at the last stage, these counterfeit clothes were sold by salespersons in different stores. Among them, a person named Wang had the responsibility of collecting shop payments and then paying wages and another named Li was managing financial affairs. The chain did not end here only, it was inclusive of dozens of designers, samplers, quality inspectors, salesmen, and many more.
When concerned authorities successfully exposed this case, the public security bureau seized an ample amount of counterfeit branded clothes from different places including warehouses, sales outlets, and processing factories. The Authorities also succeeded in capturing some defendants on the spot.
After trial, the Pudong Court of Shanghai held that: “The 21 defendants use the same trademark as the registered trademark on the same kind of commodities without the permission of the trademark owner, and the acts have constituted the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks. Moreover, the amount involved in this series of cases was more than 61 million RMB, and the criminal circumstances are especially serious, which has caused serious damage to the brand reputation and economic interests and also has infringed upon the interests of consumers. According to the defendant’s criminal circumstances, social harmfulness, and attitude to confessing to his crime, the 21 people are sentenced to imprisonment for a term of eight months to five years and nine months and imposed corresponding fines.”
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