There has been a steady increase in the number of intellectual property infringement in Shanghai in the past four years.  Foreigners were mostly held responsible in these cases, a senior official said on Monday.

According to the vice-president of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate, Zhou Yongnian, the foreign culprits usually purchase and export counterfeit versions of products with registered trademarks, selling them to dealers overseas. Zhou revealed this during a media briefing on Monday, just ahead of the World Intellectual Property Day.

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"The number of such cases that were planned by foreigners who organized Chinese to manufacture counterfeit products in China has risen in the past years," Xiao Kai, the head of the department of financial cases at the Procuratorate said.

The prosecuting agency cited one foreign violator, a British man, who was named as L. L. He  allegedly purchased counterfeit UGG boots, Hunter rain boots, Chanel sunglasses and Ray-Ban eyeglasses, then shipped them to the United Kingdom. A Chinese accomplice was identified, who was simply named as Xu. Xu helped L ship the items by providing false information to customs.

Together they worked hand-in-hand seeking clients in the U.K. with Xu following through with the orders, recording transactions and keeping tabs on payments. Their partnership allegedly worked for almost two years. They started their operations in May 2010 and were not nabbed until Feb 2013, gaining more than 4.25 million yuan ($654,000).

Customs officials discovered their criminal activities in Feb. 2014 when they found more than 12,300 pairs of Ray-Ban eyeglasses and more than 2,800 Chanel sunglasses inside the packages directed to U.K. The trademark holders confirmed that these were counterfeit products.

L was given one year and six months in prison and was fined 500,000 yuan as punishment. More so, he was deported from China through a court order in January. Meanwhile, Xu was sentenced to one year in prison and was also fined with 20,000 yuan.

Tagscounterfeit products, counterfeit goods, Counterfeit, United Kingdom, Shanghai People's Procuratorate, Foreign Violators