Officers of Yantai Customs House (affiliated to Qingdao Customs District) said they had broken an infringement case in which 162 fake insulated winter jackets were seized. The infringing products were with a market valued of RMB 110,000, according to customs officers.

Customs officers said they had received a declaration by a company in Yantai to export a consignment of “women’s jacket” a few days ago. After careful analysis, customs officers decided to put the goods under surveillance based on the fact that all indicators pointed to infringement risks. When inspecting the goods, customs officers found that the declared “women’s jackets” were actually “boy’s insulated winter jackets”. But customs officers did not stop on the find of the inconsistency between the declaration form and the actual goods. Instead, they continued the inspection since they knew from experiences that clothes smugglers usually would not use the “technique” of false declaration to avoid customs control. In further examination, customs officers managed to expose the trick, which was using the ornaments to cover the trademark. Officers could see clearly the “The North Face” logo after taking off the ornaments. They contacted the right holder immediately after the seizure of the case and got the confirmation that all the jackets were infringing products.

The goods were detained and the investigation was continuing, said customs officers.