Last month, Chinese authorities, flanked by representatives from Danfoss’ Intellectual Property Department, raided four cooling wholesaler stores in Northern China. And a couple of days ago this was followed by a police raid action against a factory producing counterfeited expansion valves. The raid took place south of Shanghai, in the city of Xinchang, Zhejiang Province.
“The local police seized 1,032 pieces of counterfeited expansion valves. Apart from valves, 42,227 pieces of labels and boxes were detained as well. We have taken numerous actions against wholesalers in past years, but this is the first time to raid a factory and seize more than 1,000 pcs of counterfeited expansion valves during a single action,” says Hanglu Miao, Anticounterfeit Counsel, Danfoss Intellectual Property Department, China.
The value of the seized fake valves by far exceeds 50,000 RMB (6,500 Euro), which is the limit for a criminal case in China. Next step is that the public prosecutor files a prosecution, and the case is taken to court. Hanglu Miao estimates that the whole process will take at least two years.
“This is a great victory for us,” she says. “And my investigators and I will do our best tracking down more infringers. For example, who printed the labels for this factory? Who are possible buyers in this supply chain? I hope this one single case may bring out more clues.”
The wholesalers from the May raid will be fined without sentence since their infringement was not as severe as the producer who according to Hanglu Miao probably faces imprisonment.