“8 defendants were not only punished by criminal penalties, but also fined 6.21 million yuan for the distributing of counterfeit brand-name chocolate.” On January 17, the large “fake brand-name chocolate case” supervised by Ministry of Public Security was heard in Xinwu People’s Court, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province (hereinafter referred to as the Court).
Previously, in Wujin District, Changzhou Jiangsu Province, a sweet shop owner found that the Dove chocolate he wholesaled from the distributor, surnamed Xu was repeatedly questioned by customers for counterfeit products. Then the shop operator sent the relevant products to the Chinese manufacturers of Dove Chocolate for test. Test results showed that these so-called authentic chocolate actually were counterfeit goods. In March 2015, Mars Group in United States, the Dove chocolate brand right owner, commissioned an intellectual property agency reported the case to China’s public security organs.
Subsequently, the police started to investigate and looked for the clues from the distributor surnamed Xu, and captured a total of 8 persons involved, seized 3 criminal dens producing and selling fake branded chocolate, and discovered over 300,000 pieces of counterfeit Dove, Ferrero Rocher in Anhui and Jiangsu Province.
After 3 trials in nine months, 8 defendants were finally sentenced between 1 and 5 years in prison (4 persons suspended), and were fined ranging from 10,000 to 1.85 million yuan, totally 6.21 million yuan. During the appeal period, as the prosecutor and defendants did not protest, the judgment came into force.
“The protection of trademark rights is not only the respect to wisdom of the enterprise and the branding process, but also the maintaining of fair competition in the market order,” Jiang Shaowen, vice chief judge of the Court said.(by Feng Fei /Shi Qian)
(Translator Liu Peng/Li Duo Editor Yan Ru)
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