This couple has been sentenced and opened three online stores for sale, using old phones to counterfeit genuine "Huawei" and "Honor" products
The old phones purchased from the second-hand market, after simple maintenance, assembly, and factory reset, have become the original genuine products and counter display machines of Huawei and Honor physical stores. Recently, after being prosecuted by the People's Procuratorate of Minhang District, Shanghai, defendants Lin and Huang committed the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and were sentenced to 3 years and 1 and a half years in prison respectively, with probation and fines imposed on each.
In December 2022, Mr. Liu, who lives in Minhang District, Shanghai, was attracted by the words "Huawei Honor Authentic Phone" advertised on his website while browsing a certain online store. He immediately ordered a phone for nearly 2000 yuan. I thought I had found a great bargain, but I didn't expect the phone I got to have issues such as lagging and poor battery life. Mr. Liu suspected buying counterfeit goods and went to the local police station to report to the police. A criminal gang that specializes in profiting from refurbishing second-hand mobile phones has emerged.
Lin has been engaged in the sales of digital products for a long time. Once, he accidentally came across a method for "refurbishing" mobile phones. Without obtaining permission from the owner of the registered trademarks "Huawei" and "Honor", he purchased second-hand phones, batteries, counterfeit phone covers, chargers, and other accessories containing the "HUAWEI" and "HONOR" trademarks from him. After simple repairs, he transformed these old second-hand phones into "new phones". Lin rented three houses as accommodation, warehouse, and renovation operation room, and hired Wang and others to dismantle, refurbish, and restore the factory settings of second-hand mobile phones on their own.
Last November, Lin took his unemployed girlfriend Huang and opened three online stores specializing in selling self-made "authentic" Huawei Honor phones. Among them, Lin is mainly responsible for the operation, management, and after-sales of the store, while his girlfriend Huang serves as customer service for the online store, responsible for receiving orders.
In order to make the refurbished machine sell better, Lin listed it for sale in his online store under the name of "original genuine product". Regarding the issue of refurbished phones that have already been activated, Lin falsely claimed that these phones are all physical store counter display machines, only for display purposes, without actual use, and support seven day no reason return and exchange to gain the seller's trust. After some packaging, second-hand phones purchased at a low price can deceive buyers into selling them at a high price as genuine products. As of the incident, the amount of illegal business and unsold amount of Lin and his companions reached over 3.8 million yuan.
The Minhang Prosecutor's Office believes that Lin and Huang used the same trademark as their registered trademark on the same product without the permission of the trademark owner, with a total illegal business amount of over 3.8 million yuan. Their behavior is suspected of the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks.