Decline in seizures of counterfeit goods, Dubai Customs says
The threat of counterfeit products smuggled into Dubai is on a downward trend thanks to Dubai Government’s active measures to thwart all attempts to smuggle such goods.
Dubai Customs on Tuesday marked World Intellectual Property Day with good news about the drop in the number of seizures of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringing goods in the first quarter of 2016, which only saw 54 seizures made at a value of Dh34.4 million compared to 2015, with 135 seizures worth around Dh16.8 million.
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China Customs cracking down on counterfeit products
Chinese Customs have been ramping up efforts to stop counterfeit goods from crossing its borders, with a three-year long campaign codenamed “Breeze”. One year into it, the outcome is already promising.
Millions of goods pass through Huanggang port everyday. Customs staff here are checking their labels. This batch of Canon cameras and lenses for export have aroused their suspicion.
“Usually, these products are made in Japan. So we got in touch with the legal department, and then they contacted people from Canon to evaluate the goods,” Customs staff Peng Haisheng said.
http://english.cctv.com/2016/04/26/VIDEeUVJypNY7538zxvy1bkv160426.shtml
Lear MoreCrime In Hyderabad
The South Zone Team of Commissioner Task Force raided a godown in MoosaramBagh and seized 4000 literes of fake ghee.
One Shiva Eshwaran was ‘manufacturing’ the fake product on a large scale using edible oil, vanaspati and cream. He has been supplying it under the label ‘ThiruMuruganGhees’ to small shops in the city.
http://www.siasat.com/news/crime-hyderabad-25-4-2016-950950/
Lear MoreFormer Trenton prison tech gets 5 years in tobacco-smuggling case
A judge said the 49-year-old former trade technician’s crime was the “dumbest thing anyone could do.” Harris lost his job. He lost his state pension, which he had invested in for 14 years. And now Harris, facing up to 15 years in prison, was about to lose five years of his life.
The only place Harris’ 10- and 12-year-old children can visit him is behind bars, a place he worked but on the right side the law prior to Monday.
http://www.trentonian.com/article/TT/20160425/NEWS/160429821
Lear MoreCigarette smuggling ring convicted
Six people – including airport customs officers – have been found guilty in a cigarette smuggling scheme that goes back many years and ended up costing the state at least €639,000 in unpaid tax revenue.
After two-and-a-half years of court hearings, six people were found guilty on Thursday for illegal possession of commercial goods, conspiracy to commit fraud, committing a misdemeanour, money laundering, bribing a public official, and neglect of service duty.
The case dates back to 2008, when authorities received a tip-off and searched the cargo of a Cyprus Airways aircraft upon arrival. Expecting to find drugs in what had been declared on paper as furniture, they instead discovered 25 kilos of cigarettes and cigars.
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Sale of smuggled cigarette causing billions of rupees loss to kitty
The sale of smuggled cigarettes has reached alarming proportion, inflicting a loss of over Rs20 billion to the national kitty annually. Sources said that multinational cigarette manufacturers have hired the help of Nielsen, an internationally reputed market research company, to produce a “doctored report” which was a gross misrepresentation of facts and against local manufacturers of tobacco products. The report mentions little or nothing about smuggled cigarettes being sold in Pakistan.
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‘Why fake lubricants exist in Nigeria’
Lack of stricter measures against producers of fake lubricants, selling of fake lubricants at cheaper prices by unscrupulous persons, high level of connivance among distributors and others, have been adduced as reasons for the proliferation of sub-standard lubricants in the industry, stakeholders in the downstream petroleum industry have said.
The stakeholders, including the Managing Director, A-Z Petrochemicals Mr. Linus Ilozue and the Managing Director, LUBCON Nigeria Limited, Mr. Taiye Williams, spoke at different fora in Lagos. They urged the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to come up with stricter measures to curb fake lubricants.
http://thenationonlineng.net/fake-lubricants-exist-nigeria/
Lear MoreChina’s fake milk powder scandal
Chaotic sales channels have been blamed for China’s latest fake infant formula scandal where 22,600 cans of counterfeit milk powder were sold under the brands of Chinese infant formula maker Beingmate and US-based Abbott Laboratories. Fonterra Cooperative Group has a close association with both – it invested in an 18.8 percent stake in Beingmate last year and is jointly developing a new dairy farm hub in China with Abbott.
Nine people were arrested over the weekend and charged with making and selling fake products in seven provinces and Chinese media report they were all long-time formula distributors who were familiar with production processes.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1604/S00691/chinas-fake-milk-powder-scandal.htm
Lear MoreHigh taxes spur cigarette smuggling
Huge profit margins, high customs duty and increasing demand among youngsters has led to exponential increase in cigarette smuggling in the state. Gujarat has turned out to be the latest hotspot for cigarette smugglers, as cigarettes smuggled into the state increased by 40 times in four years. In 2012, three cases of cigarette smuggling were reported and 44.2 lakh cigarettes worth Rs 62 lakh were seized. There were no cases reported in 2013 and 2014, but in 2015, around 4.96 crore cigarettes worth Rs37.29 crore were seized by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs in Gujarat. Over 90% of the hauls came from Mundra port.
MarkMonitor Annual Spring Symposium: Swarovski says catching ‘big fish’ counterfeiters is crucial
A lawyer at jewellery company Swarovski has said catching counterfeiters who operate offline is equally as important as taking down infringing websites, though the scale and reach may not always be the same. Running through enforcement figures from 2015, Leo Longauer, director of global IP enforcement at Swarovski, said that “catching the big fish” behind infringements was key. “Taking down a website is industrial enforcement and in an instant we can take down multiple websites, but you also want to catch the people making these products,” he said.