Counterfeit Kings

[Sabra]

Fake iPhone 6S, running Android system, sold in Shenzhen

CRI, September 25, 2015

It's being reported fake iPhone6S and iPhone 6S Plus have been found on sale in Shenzhen ahead of the official worldwide launch of the legitimate phones on Friday.

Fake iPhone6S and iPhone 6S Plus have been found on sale in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. [File Photo: qq.com]

The copycat version of new iPhone actually runs the Android system.

It is priced at 580 yuan, only around 10 percent of the price of the real one.

It's being reported a number of stores have been taking pre-orders.

Apple has yet to comment on the reports.

 

[NoLimit]

Fake liquor production gang busted in E. China

Xinhua, September 28, 2015

Police in east China's Anhui Province said they have busted a large fake liquor production gang and destroyed 14 of its production sites.

Police also seized over 30,000 bottles of liquor falsely packaged under famous domestic brands and 8.5 tonnes of substandard liquor in Dangshan County, Anhui, said the Anhui Provincial Public Security Department.

All 12 members of the group, including its three leaders, have been detained. In 2013, they began purchasing inferior liquor, bottles and packaging materials from neighboring Shandong, Jiangsu and Henan provinces and sold the liquor under false brands in Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Zhejiang provinces through their networks.

Police are still investigating the case.

 

[NoLimit]

Caught with fakes, woman got husband to hide rest of stash

Published Sep 29, 2015, 5:00 am SGT

Held at airport with nearly 500 fakes, woman got counterfeit goods at her shop removed

K.C. Vijayan
Senior Law Correspondent

A woman detained at the airport with fake goods bearing brand names such as Chanel, Cartier and Christian Dior messaged her husband to remove more fakes from her Bugis Village shop. She did not want these spotted by the police.

A district judge, underlining the seriousness of her offence, sentenced Li Na, a permanent resident, to two weeks' imprisonment for conspiring to obstruct the course of justice. She was separately sentenced to six months' jail over the fake goods offences.

"She had boldly done so despite the fact she was being detained at the airport after bringing in counterfeit goods from Guangzhou, China," said District Judge Salina Ishak in her decision grounds released last week.

Li, 40, a China national, was detained on April 29 last year at Changi Airport Terminal 2 at about 7.30am after Customs officials suspected the goods were fakes.

An assortment of almost 500 items were seized, including rings, bangles, wallets, bracelets and earrings with brand names ranging from Hermes to Yves Saint Laurent, among others.

On being alerted by Li, her 53-year-old Singaporean husband, together with a sales assistant, removed "a substantial portion" of goods including Gucci and BVLGARI fakes from her shop. Police later found them in his car boot.

Li pleaded guilty to 13 charges under the Trade Marks and Copyright Act and 26 other charges were taken into consideration in relation to the fakes seized. She had been convicted and fined $12,050 in 2008 for selling fake goods at a shop in Bugis Village and she claimed then to have stopped dealing in fakes.

But three years later, she moved to a new unit there and in 2014 imported counterfeit goods.

The judge noted she was discreet in selling the fake goods, offering them only to regular customers. The counterfeit items were hidden in a black box to avoid detection.

Li's lawyer Nirmal Singh urged the court to fine her or, at most, jail her for two months, pointing out she was the sole operator of the business, had closed the unit to show remorse and that the 861 items listed in the charges were not "big ticket" items.

He added that the mother of three children had, since 2013, collected food from markets, food centres and wholesale centres for distribution to charity homes.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Ng sought a jail term, pointing out Li was a repeat offender and had "not learnt her lesson". He noted the infringing goods involved luxury brands and the 861 items, "although not a large number, is not a small number either".

The judge held that the items were "not insubstantial" and sentenced Li to six months' jail for the fake goods offences. The court ordered two of the various jail terms, ranging from a week to four months meted out for each of the fake goods charges, to run consecutively. The remaining terms were to run concurrently. Li is appealing against the total jail term of six months and two weeks.

 

[NoLimit]

Police in southern China raid labs churning out fake Viagra and antibiotics

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 7:38pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 7:40pm

Laura Zhou
[email protected]

Some of the products seized during the raids in suburban Guangzhou. Photo: People.com.cn

More than 1.5 million counterfeit sex drugs and thousands of fake antibiotics have been seized in a raid on a gang in southern China.

Police in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, detained 17 suspects on charges of manufacturing and selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

More than 30 police raided two illegal drug labs in a village in Baiyun district last month, seizing about 530,000 sex drug tablets, 2.6 million semi-finished capsules, 2,800 tablets of Amoxicillin, as well as starch and machinery after police were tipped off, news portal People.com.cn reports.

Evidence from those raids led police to three other plants run by the same gang in two small towns in the district.

Local police working with local drug regulators seized about 1 million tablets of fake sex drugs as well as 400,000 semi-finished capsules on Monday.

Suspects told police that they had pressed starch into tablets to produce fake antibiotics, while the fake sex drugs were a mix of starch and sildenafil, or Viagra.

Police estimated that the ring had manufactured more than 100 million pills of fake drugs since last May last year that were sold in Beijing, Anhui and abroad.

The investigation continues.

Hundreds of thousands of fake Viagra and antibiotics were made under conditions such as production facility. Photo: People.com.cn

 

[Sabra]

Faking it: sophisticated Chinese counterfeiters even create Hong Kong store receipts to fool knock-off luxury goods buyers

PUBLISHED : Monday, 12 October, 2015, 4:05pm
UPDATED : Monday, 12 October, 2015, 7:00pm

Jun Mai
[email protected]

A fake black lambskin Chanel bag being offered for 6,340 yuan at a Chinese wholesale market in Wuhan – complete with counterfeit receipts suggesting it was originally bought in a store in Hong Kong's Prince's Building for HK$39,800. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese retailers of knock-off luxury merchandise are so sophisticated that they are even providing fake invoices and credit card receipts to fool customers that the products were bought in Hong Kong, state media reports.

An undercover investigation carried out in eight mainland provinces and cities by Xinhua news agency, which was reported on Sunday, also found that the trade in counterfeit goods remains vibrant despite an official crackdown on the practice.

Reporters found that the barcodes of some fake receipts actually displayed the genuine addresses of Hong Kong stores.

Collaboration between online vendors and shops is also commonplace. Customers shopping online are able to access catalogues of products that claim to be from Hong Kong stores selling luxury brands, but in reality they are high quality knock-offs, Xinhua said.

Fake receipts, which are offered on the mainland, along with the counterfeit goods to convince potential buyers the items are genuine, were also being openly bought and sold, an investigation revealed. Photo: Xinhua

The recent investigation took place in Beijing and Shanghai, and other cities in the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hunan and Hubei,

It said a wholesale market in Wuhan was found to be selling counterfeit Prada, Chanel, Burberry, Louis Vuitton merchandise for between 200 yuan (HK$243) and 5,000 yuan.

Although some of the items were clearly knock-offs, it was also selling high-quality-looking goods as genuine products. They were being offered along with fake receipts from Hong Kong stores, to convince unsuspecting customers that they had originally been bought in Hong Kong and then shipped to the mainland for resale.

One vendor, identified by her surname, Zhang, showed two invoices to undercover reporters for a fake black lambskin Chanel bag, which she claimed showed that it had been bought for HK$39,800 from the Chanel boutique at Prince’s Building, in Central.

She was selling the bag to customers for 6,340 yuan – but was prepared to sell the item for an additional 70 per cent discount off that price.

Knock-off goods were also on sale in boxes, showing barcodes at Guihuagang Leather Market at Guangzhou.

When the barcodes were scanned, addresses identical to those of stores in Hong Kong were displayed, Xinhua said.

The fake invoice of a counterfeit Prada bag stated that it had been bought at a Prada outlet in Hong Kong for HK$23,800.

It was unknown whether potential customers really believed the goods on offer were genuine because fake invoices and credit card receipts are being sold openly at the market.

“The usual knock-offs could be sold at 700 to 800 yuan a piece at most, but with packaging such as boxes and invoices, the price can go up to 2,000 to 3,000 yuan,” one vendor in Wuhan said.

Some shops keep their counterfeit products hidden to avoid being caught out by the government crackdown. They collaborate with online stores to sell to customers. People can choose products from online catalogues and they can either order the goods online or collect the goods themselves by going to the stores.

At another wholesale market selling clothes in the city of Chenzhou, in southern Hunan province, piles of blank T-shirts were seen by undercover reporters, alongside other T-shirts displaying brand-name labels.

One vendor said available labels included Playboy and Goldlion.

Vendors at another market in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, said they can produce anything made by leading clothing makers such as Adidas, Nike, Columbia and The North Face, as long as they had sample clothes and labels.

A number of blankets, all printed with designs featuring luxury brand names, including Coach and Louis Vuitton, were being sold for 37 yuan each at a market in the city of Haimen, in Jiangsu province.

One vendor at the market told the undercover reporter that laundry instruction labels, displaying the brand name of a luxury clothing manufacturer, could be added for 1 yuan, but this fee would not be charged for single orders of more than 100 blankets at a time.

 

[Sabra]

Mainland Chinese woman arrested with fake diamond ‘she planned to swap for real one’ at Hong Kong jewellery show

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 16 September, 2015, 1:40pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 16 September, 2015, 10:23pm

Clifford Lo
[email protected]

Police lead the suspect away. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A suspected thief from mainland China was arrested in possession of a fake diamond police believe she intended to swap for a real gem less than an hour before Hong Kong’s major international jewellery show opened on Wednesday.

The woman, 42, who arrived from central Henan province on Tuesday, was stopped and searched by police after she was found acting suspiciously at a registration booth at the AsiaWorld-Expo venue of the Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair at about 9.40am.

“A fake diamond about one centimetre in [circumference] was found in a secret pocket inside her handbag,” senior inspector Or Wing-yan of the New Territories South regional crime unit said.

“We have reasons to believe she wanted to enter the venue to steal a diamond by swapping it with the fake.”

The woman was arrested on suspicion of going equipped for stealing – an offence that carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail.

At noon on Wednesday, the woman was being held for questioning and had not been charged.

The 42-year-old woman is from central Henan province. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The seven-day jewellery show runs at two venues – the AsiaWorld-Expo at Hong Kong International Airport and the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

The AsiaWorld-Expo segment, which runs from Wednesday until Sunday, showcases raw materials including diamonds, loose gemstones and pearls, along with equipment and packaging.

The Wan Chai event, which runs from Friday until next Tuesday, highlights finished products. More than 3,700 exhibitors from 50 countries take part in the two events.

The senior inspector said police have deployed sufficient manpower to tackle all illegal activities at the AsiaWorld-Expo venue.

Hong Kong’s jewellery shows are no stranger to crime.

Police display the seized fake diamond. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Three months ago, diamonds and other jewels worth more than HK$5 million were stolen in 12 reports of theft on the first day of a jewellery show at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Seven visitors from the mainland – five women and two men – were arrested in connection with some of the cases.

In March, four female visitors from the mainland were arrested after two three-carat diamonds worth about HK$1.5 million in total were swapped with fakes in two separate booths at the city’s International Jewellery Show at the AsiaWorld-Expo.

 

[Sabra]

After Goldman Sachs is pirated, here are 10 of China's most audacious fakes

Pirating luxury goods is one thing, but China's penchant for elaborate fakes extends far beyond the norm

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 7:01pm
UPDATED : Friday, 28 August, 2015, 2:46pm

Jeremy Blum
[email protected]

Just a sampling of China's most recent fake products. Photo: SCMP Pictures

China is widely known for producing fake watches, handbags and jewellery, and the most recent example of the country tip-toeing around intellectual property trademarks revolves around Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Company, a group completely unaffiliated with the widely-known New York-based financial institution.

But while 'borrowing' the name of an overseas bank might be a new tactic, developing quirky fakes has long been China's forte. Here are a few of the more egregious and creative examples to come out of the mainland over the past three years.

Fake calculators

Confiscated counterfeit calculators at a Heyuan City press conference. Photo: Screenshot via Sina Weibo

In the age of the smartphone, calculators are no longer as ubiquitous as they once were. This didn't stop a Guangdong counterfeiting ring from producing over 80,000 fake Casio and Citizen calculators in 2013, instigating a massive police bust where over 100 suspects were arrested.

Fake vitamins

A bottle of Vitamin C Yin Qiao Pian. The medicine is normally used to cure colds and fevers. Photo: Screenshot via Hong Kong Department of Health

In June 2013 the Hong Kong Department of Health urged locals to avoid a Shenzhen-produced oral tablet named Vitamin C Yin Qiao Pian, which is normally used to cure fevers and colds. A knock-off version of the drug had found its way into Hong Kong and contained banned ingredients known for dangerous side effects, including the development of cancer.

Fake Starbucks

It looks like Starbucks from a distance, but upon closer inspection, something is very off here. Photo: Chinanews.com

An entire "street of fakes" popped up in the southern mainland city Wuxi in 2014, featuring placeholder signs with modified names of well-known international brands. The most eye-catching sign, which quickly went viral online for its unconventional name, was "Sffcccks Coffee".

Fake iWatches

The Zeaplus Watch strongly resembles the Apple Watch. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Coming once again from Shenzhen, cheap iWatch clones hit the market right ahead of Apple's official smartwatch release in April 2015. Many of the lookalikes were made by Zeaplus and Zhimeide, two mainland companies specialising in Android-based wristwear.

Fake salt

Police found that the “fake salt” was mostly sold to smaller supermarkets and food stores, plus small restaurants in rural and suburban areas. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A ring of counterfeiters were doing big business last month until local authorities seized 20,000 tones of industrial grade salt that was being sold as regular table salt throughout Beijing, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hebei and Tianjin. Over twenty suspects were arrested.

Fake blood

Congealed blood made by the suspect. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Even blood cannot escape Chinese counterfeiting! In early July, Shaanxi authorities discovered that a man was adding formaldehyde to barrels of congealed blood and selling the mixture as a gourmet delicacy. Traditionally, congealed duck blood is consumed all across China, but the culprit used cheaper cow and sheep's blood instead of the real deal.

Fake Air Jordans

Qiodan shoes featuring a logo similar to Jordan's 'Jumpman'. Photo: AFP

In late July, American basketball superstar Michael Jordan lost a case against Qiaodan Sports, a Chinese company that produces goods featuring the image of a jumping basketball player - heavily reminiscent of the logo used by Jordan on his Nike Air Jordan sneakers.

Fake police station

Officers found police uniforms, handcuffs and stun guns, among other items in his home. Photo: Rmrbapi.people.cn

A man in Wuhan, Hubei province, took the phrase "take the law into your own hands" one step too far when he turned his home into a fake police station, where scammed money from people in trouble. The house came complete with an "interrogation room" and law enforcement gear like uniforms, stun guns and handcuffs. His ruse unravelled when a disgruntled ex-girlfriend reported him to the real police.

Fake weed

Seized "fake weed", which sometimes goes by many names - including K2, Spice, Bizarro, Scooby Snax, Kryp2nite and Stoopid. Photo: AP

Most recently, synthetic marijuana imported to the United States from China has caused a ruckus with American health officials. While the drug resembles real pot, it has been known to deliver a lethal high from chemical compounds that can also cause panic attacks and psychotic hallucinations.

Fake Apple store

The fake Apple store nearly fooled everyone, except an eagle-eyed expat who wrote about it on her blog. Photo: Reuters

A fake Apple Store was discovered to be operating in Kunming in 2011 - a store so flawlessly Apple-like, as a Reuters report described it, that even its employees believed it was the real deal. The shop was brought to the world's attention by an American blogger living in the Chinese city. It had all the details - the logo, wooden tables and cheery staff. What gave it away, however, were the substandard furnishings (upon closer inspection) and the spelling mistake in the shop's sign: "Apple Stoer." Chinese authorities eventually found 22 fake Apple shops operating in the city and shut them all down.

 

[Sabra]

Copy of Venice city appears in NE China

China Daily, October 19, 2015

A real estate project whose design is based on a blueprint of Venice has been completed in Dalian, Liaoning province, reported Huashang Daily, a newspaper in Xi'an, on Oct 19.

A gondolier in traditional Venetian costume offers tourists in the port city of Dalian a taste of Venice – without the hassle of travelling to Italy on October 16, 2015.

The 403,600-square-meter project cost 5 billion yuan($787 million) for construction. It was designed by a well-known French company and sea water was introduced via an artificial canal.

The whole project is for tourism.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Chinks ah chinks fucking scums of the earth

 

[NoLimit]

Bogus Chinese graft-busters created fake interrogation room in abandoned mall to con victims out of money

PUBLISHED : Monday, 19 October, 2015, 11:38pm
UPDATED : Monday, 19 October, 2015, 11:38pm

Keira Lu Huang
[email protected]

The fake interrogation room the bogus graft-busters set up in an abandoned mall. File photo

Four men in China’s Heilongjiang province set themselves up as bogus graft-busters – and even created a fake interrogation room – to con money out of frightened officials.

The province’s local newspaper Shenghuo Bao reported on Monday that police in the city of Suihua had arrested three of the four suspects for allegedly racketeering on September 28. One remains at large.

The three suspects reportedly confessed they had spent three months and more than 200,000 yuan (US$31,000) to build a fake interrogation room in an abandoned mall.

Their scheme backfired after they interrogated the head of the local Bureau of Agricultural Reclamation, Zhang Wei, in late August.

In August, Zhang had been dragged out of his apartment and shoved into a car with his head covered. His wife called police immediately before the men abducted her too. Both were then taken to the “interrogation room”.

After hours of interrogation, the men demanded 400,000 yuan to settle the case.

Police later tracked the men through a neighbour of Zhang’s. Two were arrested, one turned himself in.

 

[Cremo]

Fake Viagra falls limp: 19 arrested for allegedly making, selling nearly a million counterfeit anti-impotence pills in northern China

PUBLISHED : Monday, 19 October, 2015, 4:34pm
UPDATED : Monday, 19 October, 2015, 8:22pm

Alice Yan
[email protected]

One of the suspects arrested by the police. Photo: 163.com

Nineteen people have been arrested by the police in northern China for allegedly making or selling nearly a million fake Viagra pills, according to a newspaper report.

The suspects were caught after customers at 10 adult stores in Nanjing in Jiangsu province complained about the anti-impotence pills they had bought, the Modern Express reported. The pills turned out to be fakes.

Police said the stores got the counterfeit pills from an online shop based in Shaanxi province. The owner said he bought the pills from a village in Henan province.

Nearly a million fake Viagra pills have been produced.

The cost of making each pill was less than 1 yuan (HK$1.20), but they were sold for as much as 80 yuan, the newspaper said detained villagers had told police.

The arrests were made in Shaanxi and Henan.

Three of the suspects have already been jailed, but no details were given in the report.

 

[eatshitndie]

wonder if the shit flows straight from toilet holes of fake venetian homes to canal.

 

[NoLimit]

Fake reporters punished for racketeering

Xinhua, October 21, 2015

Seven cases of fake reporters extorting money under the guise of exposing negative news were published by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications as part of a nationwide campaign.

Around 73 such cases have been investigated nationwide, with eight very serious, the office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ma Shiping, the subject of one of the cases, was sentenced to 5.5 years of imprisonment with a fine of 30,000 yuan (about 4,730 U.S. dollars) by a court in Jiangsu Province, east China, for blackmailing local government, state firms and individuals for more than 120,000 yuan. He acted as a journalist threatening to publish negative news about them in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces.

 

[Sabra]

Over 40 per cent of goods sold online in China fakes or poor quality, says state media report

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 03 November, 2015, 10:38am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 03 November, 2015, 10:38am

Reuters in Shanghai

Members of the public examine fake bags during a counterfeit goods awareness campaign run by the police in Shanghai. Photo: AP

More than 40 per cent of goods sold online in China last year were either counterfeits or of bad quality, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, illustrating the extent of a problem that has bogged down the fast-growing online sector.

The report, which was delivered to China’s top lawmakers on Monday, said just under 59 per cent of items sold online last year were genuine or of good quality, Xinhua said.

China has been trying to shake off its notoriety for pirated and counterfeit goods, long a major headache for global brands targeting the Chinese market from iPhone maker Apple Inc to luxury retailer LVMH.

READ MORE: Chinese government pledges to step up crackdown on selling fake goods online

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has been lobbying to stay off a US blacklist for fakes after coming under renewed pressure this year over suspected counterfeits sold on its shopping platforms.

The report called for “accelerated legislation in e-commerce, improved supervision and clarification of consumers’ rights and sellers’ responsibilities”.

The Chinese e-commerce and online shopping giant Alibaba has rejected government suggestions that it is not doing enough to stop fakes being sold on its platforms. Photo: SCMP Pictures

It added these were needed due to the rapid emergence of online sales, which grew 40 per cent last year to 2.8 trillion yuan (HK$3.4 trillion).

READ MORE: Luxury brands hit Alibaba with counterfeit suit

China wants to boost protection for consumers online, where there is still a lot of uncertainty about how consumers can claim compensation or hold online vendors to account.

The report added customer complaints about online orders hit 77,800 last year, a steep jump of 356.6 per cent against 2013.

 

[Cremo]

长沙“天价理发店”被罚12万

http://view.inews.qq.com/a/NEW2015103102051504

Changsha Hair Salon with Fake “Celebrity Stylist,” Fined 120,000 Yuan

Nov 02, 2015

A Changsha hair salon has been fined after tricking a female customers into spending more than 38,000 Yuan on pre-paid cards. The owner of the Mr. Rope salon was fined 120,000 Yuan including 100,000 Yuan for false advertising and 20,000 Yuan for operating without a license.

The sky high prices at the hair salon received much attention from local residents. This past Friday, the local industrial and commercial bureau decided to hand out the 120,000 fine. Mr. Rope’s owner, Mr. Jian, can defend the charge at an administrative hearing.

The hair salon did not apply for a business license but opened its doors the week of September 28. The shop staff advertised the opening, saying that a famous stylist from Beijing would be there giving free haircuts. The hair stylist at the salon also claimed to be famous for their work, claiming that he had styled for a famous bridal magazine, a lifestyle magazine, and for various models and celebrities. The so-called celebrity stylist talked many customers into purchasing expensive pre-paid cards for the salon.

“The owner the store must pay the penalty within three days or request a hearing to defend themselves,” said Deng Bo, chief of Changsha Kaifu District Bureau of Industry and Commerce.

Mr. Jian said that he does not object to the 20,000 Yuan fine for running an unlicensed business, but that the 100,000 fine for false advertising seems too high.

 

[Sabra]

Fake monks, nuns detained by police over scam

Xinhua, November 12, 2015

Carrying a local map and thousands of Buddhist prayer beads, 15 fake monks and nuns travelled throughout southwest China's Sichuan Province to scam money.

The public security bureau of Ziyang City, Sichuan Province, have detained all of the suspects at a hotel, seizing more than 9,000 Buddhist prayer beads, pendants and Buddha cards.

In early November, police found a resident from Lezhi County arguing with a monk and a nun on the street because he was forced to offer "religious endowment" after being given a Buddhist prayer bead for free.

Much to investigators' surprise, the monk and nun were actually a couple and were travelling with 13 other suspects.

The troupe of suspected scam artists, all from east China's Anhui Province, would offer beads and pendants purchased at a wholesale market for a very low price to people in the street. If they accepted the "gift" they would demand money in the form of donations, according to the police.

In Lezhi County alone, they swindled more than 10,000 yuan (around 6,400 U.S. dollars) from local residents, said the police.

Further investigation is under way.

Fake monk is not something taken lightly in China, especially in rural areas where those impersonating monks in order to cheat money often go unchecked. One high-profile case resulted in two 'temples' being shut down in 2013 in Mount Wutai, a sacred Buddhist mountain in north China's Shanxi Province. Six people were also arrested for swindling tourists out of donation money.

 

[NoLimit]

99 percent of Ultraman mobile games in China pirated, says agent

Source: Xinhua Published: 2015-11-15 19:18:01

Iconic Japanese comic and anime superhero Ultraman is facing an intellectual property battle in China, as an agent complains that 99 percent of the mobile games featuring the character in China are pirated.

Scores of Ultraman-related mobile games started appearing in the Chinese market in the second quarter of 2015, but only three were found to be authorized, according to Shanghai-based company SCLA, the exclusive agent for the distribution of the Ultraman franchise in China.

Ultraman is a popular comic and animated character for those born in the 1970s and 1980s in China.

Rampant piracy has caused concern, with SCLA saying they will launch an investigation into gaming products.

The company also hopes to "build a long-term mechanism to counter infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR)."

The mobile game market is booming in China, worth an estimated 45 billion yuan ($7 billion) in 2015. Piracy and counterfeiting remain a challenge despite China's strengthened IPR protection efforts in recent years.

Since March 2013, the country has seized 85,000 suspects and effectively contained the spread of such illegal activities.

Public satisfaction with government work in IPR protection rose 4.5 percent to 69.4 percent in China in 2014, according to the China Annual Report against IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting.

 

[Leongsam]

The Chinese truly are the scum of the earth.

While deaths caused by ISIS terrorism are headline grabbing and gruesome, the number of deaths resulting from Chink dishonesty and blatant disregard for others could well be in the hundreds of thousands annually. The chinks make ISIS look like angels in comparison.

The war on chink scum should take precedence over the war on ISIS. The carnage caused by the chinks is insidious but far more abhorrent.

ISIS is driven by an ideology which many are willing to die for. On the other hand the chinks do it out of nothing more than pure greed and utter disregard for anyone else.

Fuck the damned chinks! May they all burn in hell.

 

[Sabra]

Mickey Mouse operations: China fines five fake ‘Disney hotels’ in Shanghai ahead of giant theme park opening

Chain namedchecked US company in signboard, websites and displays

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 25 November, 2015, 4:38pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 1:46am

Nectar Gan and Zhen Liu

The facade of the Shanghai Vienna Hotel branch with the word Disney in brackets. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Shanghai has fined a hotel chain for infringing on Disney’s trademarks at five of its branches as part of an effort to protect the US entertainment giant’s brand in the run-up to the opening of its theme park next year.

The five hotels owned by the Shenzhen Vienna Hotels Group in Pudong district, where the theme park is due to open in the first half of next year, were found to have used the Chinese characters for Disney on their signboards, websites and electronic displays in their lobbies without authorisation, the Shanghai regulators said.

“Some of the hotels are more than 10km away from Disneyland. They misdirect customers to very far away places in the name of Disney. This kind of behaviour exploits Disney’s trademarks and goodwill and will cause real damage to its trademarks,” Xinhua quoted the regulators as saying.

The establishments had infringed trademark rights, and some were suspected of unfair competition, the report said. The hotels were fined a combined 100,000 yuan (HK$121,000).

The hotels had put the Chinese characters for Disney in brackets, in some cases along with street names, after their chain name – Shenzhen Vienna International Hotel.

One declared itself the “Disney branch”, despite being more than 15km from the site of the park.

The investigation into the hotels followed a complaint by Disney in the first half of this year, Jiefang Daily reported.

The fine comes three weeks after the State Administration for Industry and Commerce announced a nationwide, year-long campaign to protect Disney’s trademarks by stamping out knock-off goods.

Lin Wei, a Shanghai-based intellectual property lawyer, said the behaviour of the hotel chains was likely to amount to unfair competition, because they advertised themselves and misled customers into believing they were connected to Disney.

The Disney theme park under construction in China. Photo: ImagineChina

“Because Disney is an internationally known trademark, [companies] should be authorised by Disney before using [its name] for publicity purposes,” Lin said.

But Xu Xinming, an intellectual property lawyer in Beijing, said whether a hotel had infringed Disney’s trademarks depended on various factors, not only whether the term Disney was used.

“Firstly, it depends on whether the name will cause confusion among customers. Secondly, we need to judge whether the company had the intention to cash in on [Disney’s name],” Xu said.

Xu said if a hotel near Disneyland was only using the word Disney to best describe its location – without an intention of attracting customers from the real Disney hotels – it might not be a trademark infringement.

 

[Sabra]

Bank of China held in contempt of court in US for refusing to hand over Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent counterfeiting suspects account details

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 25 November, 2015, 9:50am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 25 November, 2015, 10:06am

Reuters in New York

Bank of China says it could not hand over the information as it was bound by Chinese privacy laws. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A US judge has held the Bank of China in contempt for refusing to turn over account information of Chinese suspects accused of selling counterfeit luxury goods.

US District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan, firing off the latest salvo in the battle between China and the United States over financial transparency and national sovereignty, held that the bank must pay a fine for withholding its customers' records.

Sullivan said he would probably decide on the amount of the penalty by Monday.

The records sought involve Chinese entities that were sued in 2010 by subsidiaries of luxury goods conglomerate Kering, including Gucci Group, Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent.

Bank of China itself is not a defendant in that lawsuit.

The companies subpoenaed the Bank of China seeking records of the alleged counterfeit sellers' accounts, but the state-owned bank argued that it could not turn over the records without violating Chinese privacy law. The bank also said the New York court had no jurisdiction over it.

Bank of China's lawyer, Laura Hall, said at Tuesday's hearing that the bank had no choice but to refuse to turn over the records and be held in contempt so that it would have a right to appeal to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We're bound by conflicting systems of law,” she said.

Sullivan, however, said the bank seemed to be prioritising Chinese law.

“What desire is there to comply with US law?” he asked. “It doesn't seem terribly deep.”

The plaintiffs asked Sullivan either to order the bank to pay US$12 million they said they lost due to the counterfeiters, or to order it to pay a daily fine until it turns over the records. Sullivan said he would consider both options, but was leaning toward the latter.

The dispute is part of a larger conflict between China's opaque, state dominated economic system and the disclosure based US regulatory regime.

Clashes have grown more frequent as Chinese companies have sought to expand overseas or tap international capital by listing in the United States.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission settled a long-running dispute with the China units of the Big Four audit firms earlier this year over their failure to turn over documents about US-listed Chinese clients. The audit firms had argued that compliance with the commission would violate Chinese state secrecy laws.

The US Public Accounting Oversight Board has similarly sought to inspect Chinese audit firms for years, but China has blocked its requests on national sovereignty grounds.

In the Bank of China case, Sullivan had ordered the Bank of China to turn over the records in August 2011.

The suspects have been sued by subsidiaries of luxury groups, including Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent. Photo: SCMP Pictures

An appeals court ordered him to reconsider last year, but he once again ordered the bank to turn over the records in September and October.

“We are disappointed by Judge Sullivan's decision, but it will clear the way for a review of the issues by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,” Bank of China's law firm, Allen & Overy, said in a statement.

The firm said the dispute should be settled through international agreements.

William Overholt, a senior fellow at the Harvard University Asia Centre and former head of strategy with Nomura in Hong Kong, said such cases could help push China more toward international norms of financial transparency. “Opening that up is a crucial step forward in having a normal capital market in China,” he said.

But James Feinerman, a Georgetown University law professor who has served as an expert witness for Bank of China in the past, said Chinese banks' privacy concerns were not that different from other international banks, and such cases could have implications for New York's future as a global financial hub.

“The thing that banks are worried about - both US and foreign - is that they don't want to be subjected to a worldwide jurisdiction just because they have an outpost in New York,” said Feinerman.