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Mitsubishi wins court case against Chinese counterfeiters

15 September, 2020

A court in China has upheld an earlier ruling that a group of Chinese companies infringed Mitsubishi Electric trademarks by manufacturing and selling “a large quantity” of factory automation equipment including PLCs, AC servodrives and inverters, that carried counterfeit Mitsubishi markings.

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court decided that the defendants – Guangzhou Lingye Automation Equipment, Guangzhou Longyan Automation Technology, Guangzhou Ouye Automation Technology, and their owners – must pay 2.66 million RMB ($390,000) in compensatory damages, and must issue a public statement admitting their wrongdoing and apologising for the harm they caused by producing counterfeit products that infringed on Mitsubishi Electric’s trademarks. This statement was published in a Guangdong daily newspaper on 1 September, 2020.

Starting in around 2012, the defendants – based in in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China – manufactured and sold copies of Mitsubishi products carrying counterfeit Mitsubishi trademarks. In May 2016, they were convicted in the Tianhe People's Court in Guangzhou City, of illegally manufacturing and selling these products, after which Mitsubishi Electric sued them for trademark infringement and has now won the case.

The counterfeit automation products carried Mitsubishi Electric's distinctive logo

Mitsubishi Electric says it will continue to take strict measures against producers of counterfeit products by detecting and applying legal measures to protect its brand value, “so that customers may continue to use its products with peace of mind”.




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