chiccododifc
9 January 2019Trademarks

Shanghai police swoop on Dyson hair dryer counterfeiters

Thirty six people who mass-produced counterfeit products of British brand Dyson have been arrested by police in Shanghai, China.

On Friday, January 4, Shanghai police said they had raided two production sites on December 14, 2018 in Huizhou, Guangdong, where they arrested the suspects on suspicion of counterfeiting a registered trademark.

The police recovered approximately 400 finished products, 1,500 semi-finished goods and 200,000 spare parts. The counterfeit products were described as being “almost identical” to the originals, and had been sold on major e-commerce websites.

Police were first notified in August 2018 when consumers complained after buying the counterfeit hair dryers online.

The force then tracked the group’s activity from purchasing, production, storage and lastly to retail. It said the group purchased real Dyson products and dissected them into parts.

The products were priced at 50 to 90% of the market price of a real Dyson hair dryer, which typically costs around RMB3,000 ($439). They had a cost price of RMB120 ($17).

In 2018, the group made RMB10 million ($1.46 million) from the sale of the goods, the police said.

Shanghai police officer, Yu Songbin, said the suspects had originally set up a company in Huizhou in early 2018 to produce hair dryers for their own brand that looked like Dyson’s. But, after sales were poor, the group decided to make counterfeit Dyson products instead.

The counterfeit hair dryers were found to be not only harmful to hair, but also a serious fire risk.

“The knock-offs are slightly different from the real products in material quality and colour, but are obviously different in the working mechanism, air volume and sound after the machines are turned on,” Yu said in a statement to South China Morning Post.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.

Today's top stories:

Burberry and Louis Vuitton lose counterfeiting case in Singapore

Qualcomm hits back at Apple CEO comments

Costco loses bid to reverse $19m win for Tiffany & Co

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Patents
2 August 2018   Vacuum maker Dyson dismissed an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit earlier this week, bringing a four-year design patent battle with competitor SharkNinja to an end.
article
14 June 2018   A jury at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division has awarded vacuum maker Dyson $16.4 million in damages in a four-year dispute over false advertising.
Patents
8 June 2023   Shark FlexStyle legal action part of global litigation waged between the pair over the patented tech | SharkNinja claims differences in design and product features.