Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Jail Time For Exporters Of Phones That Are Genuine Inside, Counterfeited Outside

Interfax China reports about four people that were found guilty in October by a people's court in Guangzhou of infringing trademark rights because they were exporting counterfeit phones. Zhang and Xu were sentenced to nine months and two persons both named Lin were sentenced eight months in prison

The inside of the phones consisted out of second hand components and the outside were new shells branded as Motorola or Philips.

Customs of Huangpu, a city 15 kilometers from Guangzhou, "captured 17,893 counterfeit Motorola and Philips phones at the port and the factories valued at approximately RMB 730,000 ($93,590), along with a large number of second-hand mobile phones, phone components and tools used in the reassembly. In April, the Huangpu Customs transferred the captured phones to the local police department and provided the police the exporting company's customs clearance record since December 2004."

After much criticism China committed itself to transferring more cases from customs or other administrative authorities to the Public Security Bureau (police) or the people's procuratorate for criminal enforcement.

Read the Infofax China article here.

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