CHINA:RAID ON PHONY TONER INK CARTRIDGES

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Date: Friday June 2, 2006 11:52:00 am
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    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.

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