Lanzhou Lubricant Plant: A Report on Safeguarding Rights and Combating Counterfeiting

Recently, during the peak sales season in the second half of the year for lubricants, the Lanzhou Lubricant Plant, in line with its anti-counterfeiting work plan, persisted in weekly monitoring of counterfeit production sites in the Lanzhou area. Through a period of overt and covert investigation, it uncovered leads on counterfeiting and selling of fake products by a certain petrochemical company in Lanzhou, and therefore stepped up surveillance at the company. When the Lanzhou Lubricant Plant's surveillance staff spotted a truck loaded with counterfeit Kunlun products driving out of the company, they immediately contacted law enforcement authorities so the vehicle could be seized. Because this counterfeit site had been raided and cleared once before, the counterfeiters' awareness of precautions had clearly increased. The steel drums on the truck initially had no waterproof caps and no anti-counterfeiting codes; the lawbreakers first drove around the city for a while, then drove the truck back to the company to fit the drums with waterproof caps and apply logistics codes. They then prepared to head to a logistics center in Donggang, Lanzhou. By this time law enforcement authorities had arrived promptly. But in order to expand the scope of the pursuit and identify the destination and middlemen, the enforcement officers did not seize the truck directly; instead they followed closely behind. They were spotted by the cunning counterfeiters, however, and after several attempts to resist, the counterfeiters found they still could not shake off the officers, so they parked the truck on a city sidewalk, hoping to wage a "war of attrition" with law enforcement. In order to take down the site in one blow, the Lanzhou plant's anti-counterfeiting staff and enforcement officers continued to match wits with the counterfeiters, tracking closely and waiting patiently until around 8 p.m., when they finally intercepted the counterfeiters and the fake oil together, successfully completing this anti-counterfeiting mission. On-site identification confirmed that the truck carried 30 drums of 170 kg L-CKC320 medium-duty industrial gear oil, all counterfeit Kunlun products of the Lanzhou Lubricant Plant. The case involved more than 70,000 yuan. Law enforcement authorities seized the oil on the spot, and follow-up matters are being handled further.