Hit the scene | Visited the Yinzhou Branch of Ningbo Public Security Bureau in Zhejiang Province

2023-11-13

Case review

At the beginning of February 2023, after a year and a half of careful investigation, the Economic Investigation Brigade of the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau of Zhejiang Province successfully detected the case of counterfeiting the registered trademark of the well-known lighting brand "PHILIPS", and arrested the relevant criminal suspects. After investigation, the suspect entrusted others to produce about 30,000 counterfeit "PHILIPS" trademark lamps and lanterns with the registration application materials of counterfeit trademarks, and the value of the case involved was about 3million yuan.

On November 7, 2023, the representative of the rights holder, Ma, Senior Director of Global Intellectual Property at SignifyMs. Riette made a special trip from the Netherlands to the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau in Zhejiang Province, China, to express her gratitude, accompanied by Mr. Zhang Baohua and Ms. Chen Jin, IP Consultants of Signify Asia Pacific, to listen to the briefing on the case and sort out the case, with a view to providing a reference for further combating and curbing infringements. Sun Bo, deputy director of the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau, presided over the meeting, and on behalf of the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau, he extended a warm welcome to the arrival of the right holders.

At the meeting, Captain Zhang Zhang of the Economic Investigation Brigade of the Yinzhou Branch reported a brief situation of the "Counterfeit PHILIPS Registered Trademark Lamps and Lanterns": The case was filed for investigation on September 6, 2021, and the police of the Economic Investigation Brigade of the Yinzhou Branch visited and found that a well-known clothing store in several shopping malls in Yinzhou District, Ningbo City, was decorated with a suspected infringement of "PHILIPS inside", which is purchased by well-known clothing stores and installed in various stores across the country. Later, through investigation and evidence collection, the lamps and lanterns used in the 23 stores where the clothing stores were located in Beijing, Ningbo, Nanchang, Hefei, Nanjing, Suzhou and other places were all lamps and lanterns that infringed the "PHILIPS" trademark. According to the police, in May 2020, the suspect signed a purchase agreement with the company where the clothing store was located in the name of Signify, that is, to provide decoration lamps to all the company's stores across the country, and the value of the case involved was relatively large. After the facts of the case were clarified, in early February 2023, the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau arrested the suspect in Beijing.

Sun Bo, deputy director of the Yinzhou Branch, pointed out that there are two major difficulties in this case, the first is the difficulty of obtaining evidence, there are many stores that need to collect evidence in this case, and the value of counterfeit lamps and lanterns used in a single store cannot meet the standards of criminal cases, so it is necessary to go to many stores in many cities across the country to collect evidence on a large scale; Second, due to the impact of the epidemic, the case spanned a long time, and it took one and a half years from the filing of the case in September 2021 to the successful closure of the case in February 2023. Deputy Director Sun introduced: In the face of difficulties, the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau will treat intellectual property protection equally, regardless of whether it is a domestic enterprise or a foreign enterprise, attach importance to the case, and is not afraid of challenges. Due to the difficulty of the above work, the Yinzhou Branch also set up a special case team to carry out various tasks in a targeted manner, overcome various difficulties in mutual cooperation, and finally successfully solved the case.

Ms. Ma Riette, the representative of the rights holder, expressed her gratitude and high recognition to the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau for overcoming difficulties and successfully solving the case. She said that after the infringement target involved in this case was discovered, there were indeed problems such as difficult investigation, time-consuming and laborious evidence collection, and the infringing trademark was composed of "PHILIPS inside", which was also difficult in the identification of trademark infringement, and the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau has rich experience in combating intellectual property infringement crimes, dared to enforce the law, was good at handling cases, and successfully cracked the case to recover losses for the enterprise, which made the right holder happy and moved!

Sun Bo, deputy director of the Yinzhou Branch, said that in addition to relying on the persistence and efforts of the police, the cracking of the case is also inseparable from the rights holder and the rights holder's agency——Cairtopus Intellectual Property Service (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. supports the investigation of this case, and thanks for the full cooperation in all aspects. He stressed that the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau and the company have many successful cases of cooperation in the fight against intellectual property infringement crimes, and once again thanked the company for its strong support to the Yinzhou branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau over the years, and the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau will make every effort to do a good job in the protection of intellectual property rights, broaden the field of prevention, increase the intensity of prevention, and continue to contribute exploration experience and practical results to the construction of a modern intellectual property protection system, and resolutely defend the "last line of defense" of intellectual property protection. Let Chinese and foreign enterprises and entrepreneurs operate with peace of mind, invest with confidence and concentrate on development in Ningbo.

Mr. Yuan, President of Kanetop, believes that in the many years of cooperation with the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau to crack down on intellectual property infringement crimes, he has assisted the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau to solve a number of major and transnational cases"Pacesetter". At the same time, local public security organs have also deepened exchanges and exchanges by cooperating with the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau and organizing teams to study at the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau, so as to accumulate experience in better combating such crimes.

At the end of the meeting, Ms. Ma Riette, the representative of the rights holder, once again expressed her gratitude to the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau, and she made a special trip from the Netherlands to thank the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau for its support to Signify's intellectual property protection work over the years, and hoped to further strengthen the cooperation between the two parties in the future. Ms. Marietteexplained that this case is a case of great concern to the Dutch headquarters, and the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau has collected evidence in many cities, and the epidemic has occurred, and the workload and challenges during this period are huge. The successful cracking of this case has served as a shock to potential similar infringers. This case not only reflects the high level of case handling of the Yinzhou Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau, but also reflects the strong support and firm determination of local government departments in China to protect the intellectual property rights of foreign enterprises, which makes Signify feel admired and appreciated.