The Lusaka Magistrates Court has fined a Chinese National K 1800 after he admitted to a charge of making 68 thousand kwacha worth of counterfeit Bata Shoes without lawful authority.
Tang Weihua, 42, of Makeni in Lusaka was facing a charge of forgery of trademarks and sale of goods bearing forged trademark.
Weihua, on 25th september, 2017 had in possession 2,572 pairs of shoes bearing a trademark resembling that of Bata shoe company.
Last week, the Zambia Police Intellectual Property Unit has seized the pairs of suspected counterfeit Bata Shoes from Mengulai Company limited in Kamwala and Makeni Konga areas in Lusaka, valued at K68, 800.
This was after an operation which was conducted by the unit at the said company which is owned by a Chinese National Tang Weihua aged 42 years.
Police Spokesperson Esther Mwaata Katongo said the operation was after a complaint filed to police by Bata shoes company Limited.
Mrs Katongo said the suspect had been charged and arrested for being in possession of any coverings, labels, reels or any reproduction, replicas or representations of a trade Mark or a mark so nearly resembling a trade mark as to be likely to deceive for the purpose of applying them to goods contrary to section 5 (1) (g) of the Merchandise Mark Act Cap 405 of the Laws of Zambia.
She said the suspect had further been charged with the sale of goods to which any trademark or a mark so resembling a trade Mark as to be likely to deceive is falsely applied which is contrary to section 6(1) (b) of the Merchandise Marks Act Cap 405 of the Laws of Zambia.
She warned members of the public to always be alert when purchasing products such as the Bata shoes and further urged the public to always buy genuine products from legitimate outlets.
“We are also warning the traders who are fond of deceiving the public by selling counterfeit products that they should desist forthwith from such vices before they are caught up by the Law,” said Mrs. Katongo.
No mention of deportation ?
These foreigners must getting heart attacks from just laughing at us.
There is a bunch such goods on Chachacha Road. Nearly all the Honda engines and water pumps being sold are knock-offs. The authorities should not wait until there is a complaint, they would serve the nation well if they made random spot-checks.
Better still, they can control what is crossing the border into Zambia. Random checks are statistically effective.
I thought forgery was punishable by imprisonment?
Those shoes are made in Makeni, local product, give it original name.
So what’s this Chinese guy’s immigration status in Zambia? His country, China, is so strict that you can’t work anyhow in the country without proper papers. This is nothing but a joke. This counterfeiter should’ve been locked up first and then deported back to China. And after you fine him a meager K1,800, you think that’s enough to deter others from counterfeiting other people’s products? Get serious with enforcing the laws, and lax laws should be updated. You need to have stiffer penalties if you want to curtail such criminal activities. What a shame.
What are you saying? China has developed on the back of making knockoffs. Zambians that are involved are learning a very good and important skill.
I bet all of you against this chinaman are studied vi kwakwa.
If it were a zambian caught doing the same crime, he would have gone in for at least 5 years with hard labour.
Zambian legal system is useless. There 3 Law systems in Zambia:
– 1st one lenient one for Chinese, Lebanese & other foreigners
– Another system is a very lenient system for politicians & wealthy
– 3rd one is a BRUTAL system for ordinary citizens
AS Animal farm stated: Some animals are more equal than others.
Sure. The justice system is compromised. I agree if this was done by a Zambian, the sentence would have been stiffer and brutal. Surely, could this sentence on a Chinese deter others from committing the same offence?
No respect for intellectual property in Zambia by government and the courts. This just kills citizens’ creativity because people will see that noone will protect their patents if anyone pirates their products. The animals that are more equal than others are the criminals!
Very laughable indeed! Just show shows how easily one can get away with crimes in Zambia. Yet these are the same chaps being considered investors. It is high we woke up and have some morals and pride as a nation. The sentence given to the Chinese fellow will not deter other Chinese from committing these crimes. What a waste of time and resource coming up with this judgement and sentence!
Anyone with more data/facts about this case? If a Zambian was arrested for any counterfeit product in China, what would the sentence be? And how does this affect the convict’s permit/licences if any? Where is the civil society on this matter? There is something fishy here….big issue but people are quiet!!!
If his not a citizen, He needs to be given citizenship right away.
Are you an *****? Reward a criminal with citizenship huh?
We have a counterfeit president leave the Chinese alone. Is Zambia a country or what??? Upuba every where every day.
When will BATA be charged for not putting the country of manufacture on their shoes. Mkst pipo believe that BATA shoes are Zambian or Sth African, majority of shoes are from India, China, Brazil ?
It is an offence undef ZRA thru Customs not to have the country of origin and composition of the shoes, materials on the upper, lining and sole. Is Bata too big to investigate
This is Zambia and PF has really got us to a very bad situation due to corruption. The Chinese has oiled the Police and Ministers. KCM polluted the Kafue river massively, got fined similar fake penalty by MMD.
Even now they pollute and are left off the hook.
K1800 against K68,000 is that fine or contribution. Not making sense at all.
And you think that fee will determine the corrupt Chinese, m sure he paid more some where in those blue offices.
Why wasn’t he prosecuted? Suppose it was a Zambian committing the same offence in China?…this time he could have been behind bars
this is a mockery of our judiciary system..K1,800 and yet shoes worth K68,000 where sized…this Chinese man will go back make shoes worth k100,000 and will only be charged K2,000..i wonder where BATA was when this judgment was been made, i wonder if BATA have a lawyer and allowed this nonsense to happen
This a no brainer for me, any foreigner who breaks our laws does not deserve to be hosted by Zambians in our country. If the law does not provide for stiff penalties no worries because there is another law on deportation which does not require a court process. Do that for the Chinese immediately. Otherwise our country will soon be flooded with millions of criminal Chinese and we are done for good as a country.
BATA can now sue this man for infringement.
…Which means a pair of those shoes was cost K27!
Which means a pair of those shoes was costing K27!
if it were a Zambian you would have arrested them for years..it’s sad..that chap should be deported and arrested to 5 years..
Lusaka Times please edit ifisungu fya bantu twapapata. Most of the English posted on the media is so difficult to understand. Yes there are those that make spelling errors or forget to put a word but you can at least know what someone wanted to say but others NO, its just awfully broken or grammatically wrong. For example; WAS COST is no English at all. The correction is even worse; WAS COSTING!!!!! The verb COST remains unchaged in the Present and Past Tense; COST, COST and WILL COST if at all you want to use the future tense.
May be this has to do with our Educational system. Things on media are read by a wide range of people and I wonder what a Westener thinks when he or she reads the broken English on media. We will also do better to go through our comments once before we hit the…
This is a mockery of justice. Was this man paying his TAX on the goods that he already sold? How did the goods enter GREAT ZAMBIA with the our guards awake? One wonders how many other fake products pass under the noses of our checkers.
Should have deported this criminal.
This is very disappointing, K1,800…Surely K1,800 WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT and Heartbreaking. I wonder what would have if it was a Zambian who did that. woooow i am astonished and how wish it was Noahs time.