Italian Government fight with knock off products in china

Italian Government Department Cracks Down on Counterfeiting Activities in China for Fear of Damaging the Country’s Image

Foreigners are joining the Chinese counterfeit crackdown team.

Starting from the second half of 2011, the Intellectual Property Department of the Italian Trade Commission (ITC) has submitted to the Chinese Intellectual Property Office 3 lists of a total of 30 “pseudo-Italian” product brands. These pseudo-Italian brands claim their products are manufactured in Italy and use the country identity including cities in Italy and the Italian national flag to advertise their products, which misleads Chinese consumers of the origin of the products. The ITC is calling on the Chinese government to take specific measures against such actions.

Recently, the head of the ITC office in Beijing Dai Shengqiao, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily.

Who loses from “pseudo-Italian” brands?

“Made in Italy, the world’s JAJEMON…”, such advertisements sound quite exciting. The bedding company JAJEMON claims its products are from Italy and its trademark is clearly marked with Italian characters.

However, JAJEMON is by no means an Italian brand. According to Dai Shengqiao, after investigation it was found that the JAJEMON trademark is registered in China by the company name “Italian Louis Trading Co., Ltd.” located at Room 5014, No. 2 Bu Ao Ci Road, Florence, Italy. The ITC has confirmed with the Chamber of Commerce in Florence, Italy that no such company or address exists and the actual manufacturer of the brand is “Shanghai Jia Li Bedding Co., Ltd.”.

According to the ITC, there are many more pseudo-Italian brands existing. Their high prices even startle Dai Shengqiao who is from Italy. He states, “during an exhibition in China, a mattress was priced at 34,000 yuan (€ 6,000) for its retail price and was more expensive than a car. An actual Italian made luxury brand-name mattress is no more than 600 euros which is only one tenth of the cost of a pseudo-Italian mattress being sold in China. ”

In July of 2010, the Foreign Trade Commission under the leadership of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development set up its Intellectual Property Office in Beijing. After about one year of investigation and data collection, there were more than 60 fake Italian brand enterprises found in the Chinese market. The main markets for these brands included mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. They were advertised as brands from Italy, but in fact were non-existent in Italy.

“The Italian ‘origin’ of these brands has been carefully fabricated to make people believe”, says Dai Shengqiao, “there was one company who put down its Italian headquarters phone number on the brochure, but it was proved that it was a number belonging to a local house in Italy.”

Such enterprises have deceived the Chinese consumers by using the name of Italy to charge prices as much as 10 times higher than similar products made in China and sold in the Chinese market. These prices are even higher than the real imports of similar products from Italy. Their actions have also disrupted the market order, created unfair competition and damaged the interests of their business counterparts who sell with integrity.

In July of 2011, the Intellectual Property Division of the ITC submitted to the Chinese Intellectual Property Office the first set of pseudo-Italian cases that included ten enterprises. This was followed shortly after by the second and third case sets filed to the Chinese government.

According to Dai Shengqiao, the reason for filing complaints to the China Intellectual Property Office on behalf of the Italian government departments is that such fictional pseudo-Italian brands do not exist in Italy and there are no actual Italian companies involved. The pseudo-Italian brands that are rampant in Chinese market have distorted the image of Italy and Italian manufacturing industry, therefore, it is only right for the Italian government department to handle such situation.

Products made at small workshops are “transformed” into international brands

What are the true stories of these enterprises blacklisted by the Italian Trade Commission? On March 16, the China Youth Daily reporter traveled to “The Exhibition of 2012 International Gifts, Premium & Household Goods (Spring) in Beijing, China” to find out more.

“Our company is registered in Hong Kong by the Italian side and its factory is in Guangzhou which is the manufacturer of Toskany in China.” In the booth of “Italian Toskany (Hong Kong) International Industrial Co., Ltd” which was on the complaint list filed by the ITC, the staff introduced to the reporter their Toskany men’s bag products by stating, “All of our products are designed by Italian designers and all the leather (cowhide) raw materials are imported from Italy. Where do you think China has so much real leather to offer?” The brand name “TOSKANY” was clearly printed on the wall in the colorfully decorated exhibition booth followed by “TOSKANY ITALY FEELINGDE” (meant “Italian taste”—report note). According to the staff, Toskany in Italy is famous for high-end men’s bags. In the Chinese market its price is relatively high and the price of a leather trolley case is about 4,000 yuan and a leather handbag is between 1,500 and 3,500 yuan.

The staff gave the reporter a product brochure, its cover had the printed product logo and characters of TOSKANY ITALY FEELINGDE. The words on the title page were read as “Originated from the spirit and dream of the Italian Leisure city Toskany, with its low profile and luxurious spirit, sincere Toskany illustrates the charm and soul return of men.”

Italian Trade Commission found after investigation that the so-called “Italian Toskany (Hong Kong) International Industrial Co., Ltd.” had no registration information in Hong Kong and the phone number was also fake. Additionally, the Toskany brand was not registered in Italy either. Its trademark was registered in China with the Chinese owner surnamed Xiao. Additionally, its real company name was Beijing Shi Dai Wei Yi Leather Co., Ltd. with its office located in Dongcheng District in Beijing.

“We are an enterprise in Huadu, Guangzhou. This is an international brand and we are the Original Equipment Manufacturer.” In the exhibition booth of Guangzhou Rong Wei Handbag Products Co., Ltd., the sales staff briefed the reporter on a “OBOSI” trolley case made by them. This company was also on the complaint list filed by the ITC. The reporter did not see any “Italian” words on the wall or any of the salesman’s name cards of the OBOSI brand which was different from Toskany that carried a very high profile in every place claiming it was from Italy. Only when the reporter asked where this international brand came from for a certain product, the sales staff said “it was registered in Italy”. However, according to Dai Shengqiao, “OBOSI” trademark was only registered in China, not Italy.

The next stop that the reporter went to was SABO kitchenware showroom with a display of glass bowls, stainless steel pots and other kitchen commodities. The single product price ranged from over 100 to 300 yuan. The booth was crowded with consumers and its business was going very well. The reporter saw the words “SABO Life Kitchenware Co., Ltd.” and “SABO (China) Life Kitchenware Co., Ltd.” on a “product certification”. A sales staff told the reporter that SABO was an Italian brand and it had authorized a Chinese company to manufacture its products.

According to the Italian Trade Commission, a trademark search in both China and Italy did not find SABO kitchenware registration information. The so-called Chinese company was just someone called ” Sabo kitchenware gift sales department in Feng Xi District, Chaozhou City” and the owner was a self-employed individual and there was no company named SABO kitchenware production company in Florence, Italy either.

The reporter then went to another enterprise that was on the “list”, the San Marco clock and watch showroom of Shenzhen Rui Lang Precision Timing Co., Ltd. The sales staff told the reporter, “We are a Shenzhen enterprise and we do all the R&D and production work.” The reporter found that their watch prices were not “luxurious”, a normal watch was 200 yuan and a more appealing one was at a selling price of about 400 yuan. But talking about their very “Western Style” international brands, the sales staff told the reporter, “This brand was registered in Italy by our company.”

According to Dai Shengqiao, trademarks such as “San Marco” and “Shen Ma Ke” were registered in China with a Chinese owner called Zhang Zuoren who was self-employed. San Marco did submit an application for registration in Italy by a Chinese applicant named Wang Sitong who was self-employed as well, but was rejected by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office.

China responded: a portion of the trademark applications have been turned down and the related problems are under investigation

Deputy Director of the Protection and Coordination Division of Chinese Intellectual Property Office Zhang Zhicheng told the reporter that the information provided by Dai Shengqiao has been well received. Because it involves different sectors such as the Administrative Department for Industry and Commerce and Quality Control Department, therefore, the relevant information has been timely transferred to the functional departments. “As far as I know, the relevant departments have contacted and communicated with the owners of those enterprises.” says Zhang Zhicheng, “The whole process would take some time. Meanwhile, certain information is related to the responsibilities of local government authorities.”

Upon the first batch of infringement list submitted by the Italian Trade Commission, the Chinese Administration Central Office for Industry and Commerce responded on October 12, 2011 that the Chinese Trademark General Office had rejected two registration applications which are Nino Ferletti Italy and Bestibelli Milan. For the action of adding Italian place names during the use of one’s own trademark, the Italian government agency could file complaints to the local Administrative Department for Industry and Commerce in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law. Additionally, for those who claimed themselves Italian brands or enterprises, to find out if they were using false propaganda or misleading consumers, it is required to involve the related industrial and commercial authorities with administration power to identify the case after investigation conducted in accordance with the law.

The deputy director Zhang Zhicheng also highlighted that China pays great attention to Intellectual Property(IP) protection. In addition to the continually-strengthened daily law enforcement, the “double crackdown” action to combat IP infringement as well as counterfeit and shoddy goods is taking place in depth which has achieved good results. The intellectual properties of Italy and other trading partners will be protected as long as they are in line with Chinese law. The Chinese government is very serious in regards to the protection of intellectual property. ”

this article is originally from This article is originally from Southern Metropolitan Daily in Chinese.

Reproduced from Synergic Enterprises:http://s-scm.com/blog/italian-government-department/