Phony ink cartridges raid target
THE
market watchdog is investigating an underground workshop that produced
counterfeit ink cartridges, labeled as famous brands, such as Ricoh and
Konica.The Shanghai General Inspection Team of Quality and Technical
Supervision seized 268 ink cartridges from the workshop on Chang’an
Road in Zhabei District during a raid, the team said. It acted on tips
from official brand holders.The workshop, registered as Shanghai
Zhongtian Digital Office Equipment Co, hid storage and production
materials in the basement of a middle school.Copyright-infringed brands
include Ricoh, Konica, Minolta and Brother. Packages were labeled Ricoh
Company Ltd, Shanghai Ricoh Fax Co, Konica Minolta Office System
(China) Co, and others. They appeared identical to authentic
cartridges.Investigators said company officials admitted the cartridges
were purchased at a low price from illegal sources, including street
vendors who collected discarded ones.The fakes have been confiscated as
evidence. Company figures on illegal profits and the number of sales
were not available.Officials with Konica Minolta Office System (China)
Co said they suffer losses of 400 million yuan (US$49 million) a year
because of counterfeit products using their brand.”Fake products are
rampant in the China market and affect 60 percent to 70 percent of
sales each year,” said Konica Minolta’s Yin Liqun, who is in charge of
fighting fake products.The fakes usually use the originally used
cartridges collected from recycling stations. Producers also buy them
from vendors who buy them for 20 yuan to 30 yuan each.From stationery
stores, sellers can get twice as much profit from a fake cartridge,
while a real one can only net them 5 yuan to 10 yuan of profit.Konica
Minolta invests millions of yuan every year on market investigations.So
far this year, company tips have led to confiscation of more than
30,000 fake products worth around 3.5 million yuan.