Nantong Court Issues Jail Sentences for IP Violations

FT.com (The Financial Times) just ran an article [subscription will soon be required to view it] relaying how a Nantong court just sentenced two people to long prison sentences for exporting "illegal copies" of perfumes made by Mo�t Hennessy Louis Vuitton.  The two were accused of shipping perfumes with a "potential market value of several hundred thousand dollars."

FT.com sees the sentences as "a significant encouragement to the luxury goods industry and other manufacturers of branded goods, which have become increasingly frustrated with the weak enforcement of counterfeiting laws in China."  One of the perpetrators was given a four four-year prison sentence and fined $70,000, while the other was sentenced to three years in jail and fined $35,000. 

The article does not make clear whether the defendants were charged with having shipped counterfeit perfume, or for having shipped legitimately manufactured perfume that went out "the side door" of a Mo�t Hennessy Louis Vuitton plant in China.  I am guessing the goods were "pure" counterfeits simply because Mo�t Hennessy is likely too savvy not to have instituted both monitoring and contract measures to prevent its own products from being sold illegally.  Either way, this Nantong court decision further evidences China's efforts to increase IP protection and the fact that the decision comes from Nantong (as opposed to from Shanghai or from Beijing) is further proof Chinese courts are beginning to take seriously their role in protecting IP rights.