"Disney co-branded" children's clothing is only sold for forty or fifty yuan a set, shopping platform brush such a store will you be tempted? Famous brand blessing, look like high-quality product display pictures and preferential prices, so that many consumers "passionately order", but after receiving the real thing, they found that the goods were not right, and bought fake goods......
Recently, the People's Procuratorate of Zhangjiang District, Pudong New Area, handled a case of counterfeit registered trademark production and sales of Disney children's clothing, involving a sales amount of more than 1,700 yuan.
In February 2023, the police received a report that Ms. Yu, who lives in Pudong New Area, bought a Disney children's thermal underwear set at a price of 88 yuan at the B brand children's clothing flagship store of a well-known online shopping platform.
The picture shows the display of the products of the online store involved in the case
After investigating the online shopping store, the public security organs smashed the dens where the criminals made and sold counterfeits, and arrested the criminal suspects Che, Zhu and Xu. The gang set up a warehouse in a place in Henan Province has a total of 3 floors, stacked with a large number of "DISNEY" trademark clothing, washing labels, tags, packaging bags, etc., only the scene seized more than 200,000 pieces of clothing involved in the case, including T-shirts, undershirts, casual wear and so on as many as 32 categories, the value of about 180 yuan yuan.
On May 31, 2023, the case was transferred to the Pudong New Area Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
40,000 yuan can buy Disney brand authorization?
The suspects Zhu Moujun and Che Moujun are husband and wife, who registered the L clothing trading company in Shanghai and have been engaged in the garment industry for many years. In 2021, seeing that the Disney brand of children's clothing is quite popular, the two of them combined, if the production and sale of children's clothing with Disney's registered trademark, it will definitely sell well.
In August 2021, Che and Zhu Moujun signed a licensing agreement through a third-party company and obtained the so-called "authorization letter" issued by The Walt Disney Company (the headquarters of Disney Enterprises in China). However, Che and others did not verify the ownership of the third-party company, nor did they ask for any valid authorization materials, and even in the contract, there were only L companies and third-party companies operated by two people, but there was no authorized party. The purchase of the copyright only cost 40,000 yuan, and the two Che, who have been in the clothing industry for many years, know that they can't buy Disney's brand authorization at such a price. The couple pulled their friends into the gang
Brand co-branding is confusing
Despite facing such a child's play "power of attorney", Che and Zhu Moujun still started the business of selling copycat "Disney" children's clothing. In order to save costs, they registered a new clothing trading company in other places, falsely claimed to have Disney brand authorization, looked for OEM factories to produce fabrics, prints, labels with the "DISNEY" trademark, etc., and then collected semi-finished products to the warehouse for clothing assembly, tagging, packaging, etc., and finally shipped them to the outside world. In October 2022, Che and his wife brought their friend Yu to join the company, with Che responsible for the company's material procurement, clothing design, clothing production and customer service management, Zhu Moujun responsible for the company's finance and overall management, and Yu Mou responsible for the operation and sales of the online store of an online shopping platform.
If there is a new style of Disney's genuine children's clothing, they will follow up and produce it. Compared with the genuine products, these copycats are even more varied, according to consumers' needs for color, cartoon images, etc., they design, produce, and label themselves, and the front and back of the clothing label are printed with the Disney trademark and the B brand registered by Zhu Moujun and others, and are promoted and sold in the name of "Disney IP model" or "Disney co-branded model".
The promotion of "authentic product authorization" is very likely to cause confusion among consumers. In the course of business, some consumers found that the online store was not selling genuine Disney brand products after purchase, and reported it to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, but this episode did not stop the "enthusiasm" of Che and the three of them for illegal profit. In order to cope with the review of the online shopping platform, the three of them changed the expired "authorization letter" by falsifying the P map.
During the review and prosecution stage, Disney Company and its intellectual property agency issued a certificate of authorization, confirming that Disney Company had not authorized the company involved in the case and the suspect to produce and sell Disney's intellectual property products, nor had it authorized the relevant intermediary company to have the above-mentioned rights. According to the audit, from September 7, 2021 to February 27, 2023, the total actual sales volume of criminal suspects Che and Zhu Moujun exceeded 830,000 pieces (sets), and the actual sales amount was more than 1,700 yuan, and from October 1, 2022 to February 27, 2023, the actual sales volume of criminal suspect Yu was more than 160,000 pieces (sets), and the actual sales amount was more than 560 yuan.
Recently, the court made a judgment in the case after the Pudong New Area Procuratorate initiated a public prosecution: for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks, the defendant Che was sentenced to four years and six months in prison and fined 5.5 million yuan, the defendant Zhu Moujun was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan, and the defendant Yu was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, and fined 200,000 yuan.
The prosecutor reminded
The unauthorized act of counterfeiting registered trademarks for illegal benefits not only interferes with the normal order of production and operation, but also infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders and consumers, and must be severely cracked down. Here, the procurator reminds the majority of producers and operators that they should strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations, produce and sell qualified and legal products, and consciously respect the intellectual property rights of others. The majority of consumers should be vigilant against products that are obviously lower than the market price, not greedy for cheapness, but also pay more attention to keeping the purchase receipts, and report to the relevant departments in time if they accidentally purchase counterfeit products. In addition, e-commerce platforms, as a growing social entity, should shoulder their social responsibilities and further establish and improve the substantive review of the brand authorization of settled merchants, so as to be the first "gatekeeper" for consumers.
Source: Pudong Procuratorate
Editor: Sharon