The office of the National Working Group for Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR) Protection yesterday announced customs' Top
10 successes in 2006.
On March 13, a large batch of counterfeit Motorola and Philips
mobile phones were seized by Huangpu Customs in Guangzhou, capital
of south China's Guangdong Province.
After customs reported the find to the city's police and the
industrial and commerce bureau, the three agencies destroyed an
underground operation that produced the phones and recovered 17,893
handsets valued at 730,000 yuan (US$94,000).
The four suspects - one Hong Kong resident and three mainland
residents - received betweeen eight and nine months' imprisonment
for the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark.
On February 10, Xiamen Customs in east China's Fujian Province received a declaration from a
local company exporting sportswear to a Middle East country.
Using an advanced "risk analysis system", customs officers found
many questionable points in the declaration and decided to examine
the shipment.
Officers later seized more than 30,000 pieces of counterfeit
sportswear and were praised by the Shanghai Lining Sports Utilities
Company.
In August, Shenzhen Customs in south China's Guangdong Province
discovered and confiscated 47,600 cartons of counterfeit Marlboro
cigarettes with a market value of more than 5 million yuan
(US$640,000).
Customs received a declaration from a company in Qingdao in east
China's Shandong Province to export 15,180 plastic
wraps to Hong Kong.
However, after conducting a risk analysis, officers became
suspicious and opened the container to examine the goods. They
found a huge amount of counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes under 80
boxes of paper handkerchiefs.
On December 11, 2005, a customs officer at Beijing International
Airport noticed a suspicious male passenger carrying only a black
bag. The officer came up to interrogate him and learned he was
taking a flight to Istanbul, Turkey.
Customs officers checked his bag on the X-ray machine and saw
many black dots. After they opened his bag, they discovered 25,000
counterfeit Pfizer tablets and 20,000 other tablets.
On October 10, Changsha Customs in central China's Hunan Province looked into a declaration by a
Beijing company seeking to export a batch of batteries to Djibouti.
After carrying out a risk analysis, officers decided to examine the
goods further.
They found the batteries were marked with "Durata." After
contacting the trademark owner - the Sichuan Huajing Guomao
Industrial Company - customs confirmed the batteries were
counterfeit.
The company said Durata batteries were popular in Middle Eastern
and African markets, but were often made in the domestic
counterfeit market.
In July, Qingdao Customs in east China's Shandong Province
seized more than 20,000 m of counterfeit polyester cotton cloth
with a value of more than 630,000 yuan (US$81,000).
The trademark owner, the Oriental International Holding Shanghai
Textile Import and Export Company, said the company's annual export
volume was restored to its highest-ever level thanks to the
customs' efforts in cracking down on counterfeits.
In March, Shanghai Customs seized 100,000 counterfeit Diamond
bicycle inner tubes with a market value of 266,400 yuan (US$34,000)
destined for a South Asian country.
A month later, they seized a furtjer 50,000 counterfeit inner
tubes of the same type destined for a South American country.
In August, Hangzhou Customs in east China's Zhejiang Province seized 41,304 pieces of
counterfeit FIFA sportswear, with a market value of 1.276 million
yuan (US$164,000).
On October 13, David Gill, chief trademark advisor for the
International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) presented
a silk banner as a gift to customs.
He praised their efforts to crack down on IPR violations and
protect FIFA's interests.
In April, Ningbo Customs in east China's Zhejiang Province
seized 310,000 counterfeit Tiger Head batteries destined for a port
in the Middle East.
After contacting the trademark owner the Guangzhou Tiger Head
Battery Group Company officers confirmed the goods were
counterfeit.
In January, Tianjin Customs seized 10 containers filled with
fake products, including sports shoes, shirts and leather
belts.
The haul included counterfeit Adidas, Nike, Puma, Reebok,
Lacoste and Levi goods with a market value of 420,000 yuan
(US$54,000).
(China Daily April 17, 2007)