Partner arrested for selling fake goods

Puducherry police arrested a channel partner for allegedly selling spurious
HP consumables. The police, along with Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights
(EIPR), raided the premises of Gautham Infotech, and seized spurious inkjet
cartridges and toners worth Rs 1.5 lakh. Sathyanarayana, Proprietor, Gautham
Infotech was remanded to police custody. The accused, who deals with stationary
products, had been selling consumables for the past six months.

R Satheesh, GM-Operations South, EPIR estimated that Sathyanarayana probably
sold spurious HP consumables worth Rs 20 lakh in the past six months time, and
Puducherry government has been the major customer for him. After receiving
information from sources on the fraud happening in Puducherry, EIPR conducted a
test purchase and raided Gautham Infotech along with the police.

The accused had allegedly bought spurious consumables at an extremely low
price and had been bundling them along with original products in case of bulk
deliveries.

Satheesh also informed that Sathyanarayana has been booked under Copy Rights
Act, where he is liable to imprisonment of three years or a fine of Rs 1 lakh,
or both, and there are chances of the accused being booked in cheating case
under Section 420.

“Preserving the identity of IPR is our major task, and we regularly identify
spurious products manufacturers. We act based on the information received from
various sources on these illegal manufacturers and have the power of attorney
from companies like HP, Canon, Samsung, Microsoft and SAP to name a few, for
conducting surveys and raids, in case of any IPR violations,” Satheesh claimed.

He said that EPIR has caught as many as 45 cases across the country in 2008,
where they found nearly 20 spurious manufacturers. “There is a huge network
involved in manufacturing and selling spurious consumables for HP alone. These
products are manufactured in North India and are being distributed across the
country. Our organization has been actively involved in identifying and
uprooting these manufacturers, and saving the IPR of all major brands,” Satheesh
informed.