Shanghai sees more foreigners in counterfeit-products cases

A rising number of foreigners have been held accountable for intellectual property infringement in Shanghai, a senior official with the city's prosecuting agency said on Monday while reviewing cases from the past four years.

Some foreign violators secretly purchased and transported counterfeit versions of products with registered trademarks to foreign countries and then sold them to dealers overseas, said Zhou Yongnian, vice-president of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate. Zhou made the remarks during a media briefing on Monday, one day ahead of World Intellectual Property Day.

Xiao Kai, head of the department of financial cases at the procuratorate, said, "The number of such cases that were planned by foreigners who organized Chinese to manufacture counterfeit products in China has risen in the past years." He declined to give a number.

A British man, whom the prosecuting agency identified only as L, together with a Chinese accomplice surnamed Xu, purchased counterfeit UGG boots, Hunter rain boots, Chanel sunglasses and Ray-Ban eyeglasses, and shipped them to the United Kingdom by giving false information to customs about the items.

L was responsible for seeking clients in the UK, and Xu followed up on orders, made payments and kept accounts, authorities said. From May 2010 to February 2013, the two made more than 4.25 million yuan ($654,000) from counterfeit products.

Their criminal practice was exposed in February 2013, when customs officials discovered more than 12,300 pairs of Ray-Ban eyeglasses and more than 2,800 Chanel sunglasses in their package bound for the UK. All the products were identified as counterfeit by the trademark holders.

L was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, fined 500,000 yuan and ordered deported from China by a Shanghai court in January. Xu was sentenced to one year in prison with a one-year reprieve and fined 20,000 yuan.