In China, the AIC (the Administrative authority for Industry and Commerce) has the administrative mandate to combat IP infringement. Enterprises can lodge complaints to the State AIC or provincial or city AIC for IP infringement activities; such as production of counterfeit products in factories, or sales or marketing of infringing products in shopping malls. The AIC can, by itself or in co-ordination with other departments, organize actions to raid against production or marketing activities, seize infringing product, impose administrative punishment on the infringing parties; thus in order to safeguard and protect IP rights and interests.
The legal basis for AIC actions against counterfeiting includes Trademark Law, Product Quality Law, Unfair Competition Law, and so forth. Before taking any action, the AIC will generally conduct an investigation of the alleged infringement activities, and examine the verification reports provided by product experts of the IPR owners or other accreditation bodies.
The anti-counterfeiting operations are mostly surprise checks on the infringers’ shops or factories when they are not expecting any official checks. The AIC personnel has the power to impound or seize infringing or illegal products; and conduct further investigation.
Time is of the essence. IPR owners should entrust only the well-experienced and trustworthy agency companies such as ours to take actions. The agency’s experience and its professional team are conducive to dealing with different situations efficiently and successfully. Our company has accumulated valuable experience over the years. We are capable of safeguarding customers’ IP rights.
Case:
In May 2010, a retailer named L from Hailin purchased 125 pairs of men’s shoes bearing “Y” from a wholesale shoe market and tried to sell them in his retail shop.
In December 2010, Heilongjiang Hailin Administration for Industry and Commerce (HAIC) conducted a routine investigation against L’s retail shop and discovered that the shoes might be counterfeit products as they bear the “Y” trademark. L failed to present the certificate of “Y” trademark registration, nor any authorization documents for L to deal with products carrying “Y” trademark. As a result, HAIC impounded 118 pairs of men’s shoes on the spot on that day. During further investigation at HAIC, L admitted that he did not have authorization to sell shoes bearing “Y” trademark. L claimed that he did not know anything about trademark laws and was unaware that the shoes were infringing upon the exclusive right to use “Y” trademark.
Subsequently HAIC notified our company of the action and detained the relative goods in December 2010. After obtaining confirmation from Company A, the owner of “Y” trademark, our company issued a verification report that the men’s shoes marked “Y” were counterfeit products in January 2011, therefore were infringing Company A’s “Y” trademark. We requested HAIC to destroy all infringing goods and impose severe punishment on the infringers.
In January 2011, HAIC issued a Penalty Decision. HAIC determined that the shoes were counterfeit and L’s act infringed the exclusive right to use the registered trademark by the owner, and thus contravened the Trademark Law. The following punishment was passed
1. L was ordered to cease the infringing activities immediately;
2. The counterfeit shoes were confiscated and would be destroyed
3. L was fined at RMB 15,000 Yuan.