Entering ChinaIn January 2024, Xiao Gu (pseudonym), who lives in Haishu District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, bought two Stanley brand thermos cups with the “STANLEY” logo online at a unit price of 87 yuan. After receiving the goods, Xiao Gu found that the thermos cup was rough in workmanship and the insulation effect was not good. “Did I buy a fake?” Suspecting that she had been deceived, the more she thought about it, the more angry she became, so she reported the situation to the public security organs.
After the public security organs filed the case, they quickly locked down Hu Moumou, the actual operator of the online store that sold the “Stanley brand” thermos cup, and successfully arrested him in February of the same year. In addition, the police also seized more than 300 counterfeit “STANLEY” brand thermos cups that Hu Moumou had not yet sold on the spot.
According to the investigation, it turned out that as early as May 2023, Hu Moumou had sold a batch of “STANLEY” Stanley brand thermos cups. According to Hu Moumou’s confession, someone happened to ask him if he sold this brand of thermos cups, he knew that he had no regular source, but in order to make a profit, he tried every means to buy a batch of counterfeit “STANLEY” brand thermos cups from an unofficial online store at a low price, and then sold them at a higher price. After tasting the sweetness, Hu Moumou began to start a business of selling fakes more unscrupulously.
After investigation, from May 2023 to February 2024, Hu Moumou continued to sell counterfeit “STANLEY” brand thermos cups through two Alibaba online stores under his name without obtaining the authorization of the trademark owner, and falsified store sales data by swiping orders to deceive consumers’ trust. As of the time of the case, the cumulative sales amount reached more than 860,000 yuan, and the illegal profit was about 100,000 yuan. After identification, the chemical composition (shell material) of the stainless steel material of the thermos cup sold by Hu Moumou with counterfeit registered trademarks did not meet the requirements. At present, the seized counterfeit thermos cups have been destroyed in a centralized manner. At the same time, the Haishu District People’s Procuratorate insisted on tracing the source and pursuing it to the end, successfully pursued and prosecuted two upstream personnel, and smashed the counterfeit and shoddy thermos cup counterfeiting den, and the case is currently being further handled.
Hu’s conduct has constituted the crime of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, and because he has a previous record of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, this act is a recidivism during the probationary period of probation. After the Haishu District People’s Procuratorate initiated a public prosecution in accordance with the law, the district court finally decided to revoke Hu’s suspended sentence and sentenced him to four years and five months in prison and a fine of 850,000 yuan.
The procurator reminded the majority of business operators not to touch the red line of the law for the sake of profit, and not to “know and sell fakes”, so as not to end up with both people and money. When purchasing goods, consumers should identify official channels, carefully screen, be wary of excessively disparity in price, resist “knowing that fake and buying fake”, and report to the public security organs or market supervision and management departments in a timely manner if they find that they manufacture or sell counterfeit trademark goods.
Article 214 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates the crime of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, that is, if a person sells goods that he knows to be counterfeit registered trademarks, and the amount of illegal gains is relatively large or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years and/or a fine; Where the amount of unlawful gains is huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, a sentence of between 3 and 10 years imprisonment and a concurrent fine is to be given.
