Procter & Gamble patents counterfeit detection kit
P&G_logo_squareConsumer product giant Procter & Gamble has been awarded a US patent on a chemical test kit that could be used to detect counterfeit versions of its products. The kit – described in US Patent No. 8,703,068 – “includes a plurality of test protocols to determine the presence or absence of one or more active component, diluent component, and/or preservative component in a consumer product.” Popular consumer products are common targets for counterfeiters, and P&G estimates that approximately 2-3 per cent of all fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) sold worldwide are counterfeit.
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China takes down ring peddling fake Dow sealants
Silicone sealantChina has made a string of arrests in a counterfeiting crackdown that has broken a ring selling fake Dow Corning silicone sealant. Law enforcement authorities in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, broke up the ring selling the counterfeit sealant across six provinces and one city including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai, according to a company news release. In the process, they arrested more than 10 counterfeiters and seized imitation Dow Corning products.
Lear MoreIllegal cigarette plea as dodgy tobacco found on the streets
Pictures of illicit cigarettes potentially for sale on Lancashire’s streets have been released in a bid to bring dodgy traders to justice. Two brands manufactured specifically for the black market, called Jin Ling and L&M are suspected to be being sold. In 2012 the Evening Post launched a campaign to tackle the county’s deadly black market tobacco trade, with 40 illicit tobacco dealers prosecuted while it ran. It raised awareness of how the criminal underworld profits from smuggling illicit cigarettes and tobacco into Lancashire and selling them on the black market, often to the most impressionable in society. County Council figures suggest around 50,000 people in Lancashire smoke illegal cigarettes, many believing they are getting a good deal without realising the sickening story behind Lancashire’s illegal tobacco trade.
Lear MoreOrganized crime smuggling tobacco into NJ
Cigarettes are being bought in huge quantities in states like Virginia, where the tobacco tax is very low, and then shipped up the I-95 corridor to New Jersey and New York where taxes are very high, and resold illegally. “Smuggled cigarettes have become the new currency of organized crime, and a lot of these criminal organizations are finding that it’s more profitable than illegal narcotics,” said Rich Marianos, the retired Assistant Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
He said nationwide, states are losing more than $5.5 billion in tax revenues. “That means states like New Jersey are being robbed of taxes that could go to law enforcement, schools, emergency services, vital things that we use every day as taxpayers,” Marianos said. He stressed black market tobacco smuggling has become “a high-profit, low-risk criminal enterprise. Compared to drug offenses where there’s a mandatory minimum sentence, there’s no penalties out there for the cigarette trafficker.” So where are these cigarettes being sold?
“They’re being sold in the bodegas, in the convenience stores, they’re being sold on the street, they’re being sold in the housing projects,” Marianos said, “by street gangs like the Latin Kings, terrorist organizations, the Russian Mafia.”
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Alfano praises anti-counterfeiting police raid in Naples
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Wednesday praised an operation in which police seized as many as 120,000 fake items from Naples-area workshops operated by 11 suspects allegedly linked to the powerful and vicious Camorra mafia organization. As well, police in Venice fined 13 Senegalese and Bangladeshi street vendors, all of whom were legal residents in Italy, for selling knock-offs. They also seized 100 fake designer bags, 400 toys, and 30 camera tripods. “Dismantling this kind of network means protecting our products, fighting counterfeiting, guaranteeing Italians peaceful days at the beach, and siphoning off vital sap from the illicit market,” the minister said. The interior minister sparked controversy on Monday when he called for a crackdown on street vendors, most of whom are Indian and African, using the derogatory term “vuccumpra'” to describe them.
Lear MoreChina Product Counterfeiting: Using UDRP To Shut Down The Website
Our law firm has in the last year had probably twice as many counterfeit matters as in any prior year. Not sure if this is because counterfeiting is on the increase or if it is just because American companies are getting so sick of it that they are becoming more likely to take action. Most of these matters involve Chinese companies shipping counterfeit product into the United States.
There are all sorts of ways to try to shut down Chinese counterfeiters but today’s post focuses on only one of those: trying to shut down the counterfeiter’s domain name. In a subsequent post we will talk about using a Section 337 action before the International Trade Commission.
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Warning issued over smoke detector bearing counterfeit UL mark
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) last week issued a warning regarding a Hochiki SLV-24N model smoke detector that has been discovered bearing a counterfeit UL mark.
The full statement from UL can be found below:
The following is a notification from UL that a Hochiki SLV-24N Smoke Detector bears a counterfeit UL Mark for the United States. The SLV-24N Smoke Detector has not been evaluated by UL to the appropriate Standards for Safety, and it is unknown if this Smoke Detector complies with any safety requirements.
Lear MoreRichard Marianos: Route 95 is the new Tobacco Road for cigarette smugglers
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and the General Assembly recently wrote a tough game plan to fight the explosion of tobacco smuggling under way along Route 95, “The New Tobacco Road,” a problem that is robbing taxpayers and the state of millions of dollars and stretching far beyond the borders of the Ocean State. This tougher new stance comes on the heels of a major state and federal breakup of a Providence-based smuggling ring responsible for $1.2 million worth of contraband cigarettes and a Rhode Island tax loss from this group alone of over $1 million, real money that could have been used for schools, roads or other vital programs. This criminal enterprise was not a mom-and-pop operation, but a sophisticated scam to move cheaper cigarettes from Virginia to Rhode Island for sale at huge profits. One smuggler donned his U.S. Army uniform and drove his contraband loaded truck with Rhode Island Veterans plates to conceal the crime and attempt to curry favor with law enforcement.
Lear MoreVenezuela seals Colombian border to fight smuggling
Venezuela closed its border with Colombia Monday night to fight the smuggling of cut-rate gasoline and other products that has caused huge losses for the government and exacerbated severe shortages. Oil-rich Venezuela has the world’s cheapest gas, as well as price controls that keep goods like rice and toilet paper up to 10 times cheaper than in Colombia. But Venezuela has also been hit by crippling shortages of basic supplies and rampant inflation, even as the outward flood of local products has become a defining feature of the regional economy. To combat the problem, the Venezuelan government has deployed 17,000 troops to seal the 2,200-kilometer (1,400-mile) border off every night from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Venezuela-seals-Colombian-border-to-fight-smuggling
Lear MoreVenezuela seals border with Colombia to fight smuggling
San Cristobal: Venezuela closed its border with Colombia Monday night to crack down on smuggling of cut-rate gasoline and other products and stanch huge losses for the Caracas government. A total of 17,000 troops have been posted along the frontier to prevent Venezuelan gas and other products kept cheap thanks to government price controls from being sneaked across the border into Colombia. The closing along 2,200 kilometers (1,400 miles) of border applies only at night. It will last 30 days during a preliminary period and then the effect of the measure will be assessed. The lure for smugglers is acute: gas is so cheap in Venezuela it costs less to fill up your tank than it does to buy a bottle of water.
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