Packaging Printing Fee Dispute Leads Police to Counterfeit Power-Tool Workshop in Qidong

Qidong is widely known in China as the "hometown of power tools," and its annual sales represent about 60% of the country's total. Because the market is so large, some lawbreakers have set their sights on it in hopes of profiting.

In Qidong, Zhu noticed that others were making money from power-tool sales and turned to trademark imitation to manufacture and sell counterfeit goods, treating it as a shortcut to rapid profit. What he did not expect was that, not long ago, one of his own business partners would report him.

Zhu is in his early thirties and lives in Jinhai Town, Qidong City. With limited education, he had long struggled to secure stable employment. In the first half of last year, after seeing that a well-known local brand of power tools sold well, he discussed the idea with several friends and decided to run a business under someone else's brand.

Power tools require supporting items such as self-adhesive labels, packaging boxes and instruction manuals. Zhu contacted Teng, who worked at a Shanghai advertising company, online and arranged for him to produce these packaging and printing materials.

At first, Zhu and his associates earned considerable money by making and selling counterfeit power tools. To protect their market later, they raised their product standards and wanted every detail to look convincingly authentic. Not long ago, a dispute arose because the packaging printed by the Shanghai advertising company failed to meet Zhu's requirements.

Citing quality problems with the trademarks, Zhu refused to pay the balance and would not accept the goods; eventually, Teng could no longer reach him. Teng then used the address shown on the logistics waybill to locate the site where Zhu was producing counterfeits.

When Teng found Zhu, he asked him face to face to settle the remaining printing fee for the batch of trademarks, but Zhu again refused. Left with no other option, Teng sought help from local police in Qidong.

Yao Lingxia, assistant prosecutor at the People's Procuratorate of the Tongzhou Bay Demonstration Zone, said Teng reported the matter to the public security authorities and asked them to recover the balance. While responding, police found a large number of power tools suspected to be a well-known brand at the scene and subsequently opened an investigation into Zhu and others.

Investigators found that from the first half of last year until the case came to light not long ago, Zhu and his associates had earned more than RMB 300,000 by manufacturing and selling counterfeit power tools. On suspicion of the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks, Zhu and the others have been transferred to the procuratorial organ for examination and prosecution.

This case also serves as a warning to packaging and printing companies: orders must be screened carefully, and businesses should not illegally manufacture or produce infringing goods for the sake of high profits. If a client is making counterfeit or shoddy products and a printer produces packaging without verification, the printer may also commit the crime of illegally manufacturing registered trademark marks.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378700.html