Web Celebrity Anchor in China Sentenced for Counterfeiting Registered Trademark
TapTechNews August 8th news, according to the Xiaoshan Daily report on August 5th, recently, the People's Court of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City has conducted a trial on a case of a web celebrity anchor counterfeiting a registered trademark, and five defendants were sentenced. Among them, a well-known web celebrity anchor with as many as 3 million fans on a short-video platform was sentenced to more than three years in prison due to the serious circumstances involved in the case.
It is understood that the involved anchor Wang is a well-known anchor on a short-video platform. In a live broadcast in November 2022, anchor Wang met Xu, an 'old fan' who claimed to have a channel for imitating the Chrome Hearts brand necklace, and then invested 110,000 yuan to purchase the genuine Chrome Hearts necklace as an imitation template and handed it over to Xu to find the specific imitation channel. Then, Xu got in touch with Qi and Long successively, imitated according to the genuine necklace and was equipped with the brand's official unique 'same style' handbag, packaging box and identification certificate, etc.
In January 2023, anchor Wang began to promote and sell high-end counterfeit Chrome Hearts necklaces priced at 16,500 yuan each on the live streaming platform. In just over a month, they imitated a total of 42 counterfeit Chrome Hearts necklaces, of which 41 have been successfully sold, and the cumulative sales amount reached 676,500 yuan. Among them, Wang and Guan illegally reaped a profit of as high as 80,000 yuan.
In April 2023, a woman reported to the police for purchasing a suspected 'fake Chrome Hearts necklace' and accused Wang of selling counterfeit Chrome Hearts brand necklaces. Subsequently, after in-depth investigation of this case, it was officially transferred to the court and prosecuted on January 24, 2024.
After the trial by the court, it was determined that the defendants Wang, Guan and other five people, in collusion, without the authorization of the owner of the registered trademark, used the exact same mark as the registered trademark on the same kind of goods, and this behavior was extremely bad and had constituted the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark. In accordance with the law, finally, the above five defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years with a three-year and nine-month probation to three years and three months, and corresponding fines were imposed.
TapTechNews note:
1. According to Article 213 of China's Criminal Law, without the permission of the owner of a registered trademark, using the same trademark as the registered trademark on the same kind of goods or services, if the circumstances are serious, it shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine may also be imposed; if the circumstances are extremely serious, it shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than ten years and a fine shall also be imposed.
2. According to Article 55 of China's Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, if there are counterfeit and shoddy situations in the goods sold through online live streaming, the same provisions of refunding one and compensating three apply, and the purchaser can request return, replacement or repair in accordance with Article 24 of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law; if adulteration, counterfeiting, passing off the fake as the real, passing off the inferior as the superior or passing off unqualified products as qualified products in the sold products, and the sales amou nt is more than 50,000 yuan, it will constitute the crime of selling shoddy products.
3. According to Article 60, Paragraph 2 of China's Trademark Law, if the illegal business volume is more than 50,000 yuan, a fine of not more than five times the illegal business volume may be imposed; if there is no illegal business volume or the illegal business volume is less than 50,000 yuan, a fine of not more than 250,000 yuan may be imposed. For those who commit trademark infringement twice or more within five years or have other serious circumstances, heavier punishment should be imposed.