In Vino Veritas
Getting Practical; Market monitoring and alternative enforcement strategies
在Vino Veritas
实用攻略; 市场监测和替代执法战略
“这是没有希望的。中国的规模与美国相当。人口是美国的4倍。但他们无处不在地伪造一切。 如果我的葡萄酒被伪造，我们就没有机会。”
不可否认，中国对假冒有着浓厚的兴趣。我一直在中国工作了25年，对抗了许多不同消费品的造假者。 因此，本文的目的是通过为葡萄酒商提供一些简单实用的信息来消除他们的顾虑。
做好准备！
无论您的葡萄酒已经在中国上市，或者只是计划进口到中国，都需要进行检查以确定您的产品是否能在中国合法存在。鉴于大多数消费产品可在互联网上获得信息，这项工作并不复杂。 使用www.baidu.com，它功能强大，你需要深入研究中文网站和语言的细微差别。百度的缺点是令人恼火的弹出式广告，而且没有英文自动翻译，但是你只需将文字复制并粘贴到Google上。
没有必要了解您的葡萄酒的中文名称可能是什么。只需使用标签上的字词进行搜索;外国葡萄酒是以原名为主，而不是中文译名。
如果你发现可疑葡萄酒该怎么办？继续搜索您的竞争对手是否也在其中。如果是这样的，请与他们交谈并分享信息。在假冒方面，您和您的竞争对手是站在统一战线的。但是，在任何情况下都不要让他们对问题进行任何询问。通常，葡萄酒进口商或供应链顶端的人会对假冒产品负责。
确保有问题的葡萄酒是假冒的。计算从销售价格到销售价格的帐户运费，50％的税金和50％的经销商加价。
当您获得葡萄酒进行分析时，请仔细研究标签是否有任何印刷错误。但同样重要的是，看一下在瓶底的玻璃铭文和点代码。您可以立即确定它是否是您的瓶子。与假货相反，中国玻璃制造商无法完美地伪造瓶子，包括颜色。中国执法当局仅对可见的伪造作出反应，而不是口味。
完全融入
如果确定您的葡萄酒已被伪造，最好找一位在中国专门从事假货控制部门的知识产权律师。用英语搜索谷歌是最好的方法，因为这可以保证公司具备语言能力。举例一家类似的公司：www.fipa.cn，但有很多其他的。
品牌保护的另一种方法
知识产权法是强制执行您权利的一种重要方式，但对于葡萄酒来说，使用消费者保护途径可能会非常有益。在本网站的其他文章中，有提供了有关注册商标的解释。根据刑法，我们不能总是依赖中国纳税人的钱来保护您的权利。
两个主要的执法部门是食品药品管理局www.sda.gov.cn和 质检部www.aqsiq.gov.cn。 他们的工作是保护公众免受欺诈，并确保安全的产品被出售。由于他们在中国各地设有办事处，因此拜访也非常容易。 任何公民，包括外国人，都可以提出投诉。当然最好通过当地律师，或者更好的知识产权专家，如商标律师。
搜索应包括葡萄酒一词，“葡萄酒”的中文以及葡萄酒品牌的英文或中文名称。
本文是由假货调查专家尼克巴特曼为中国知识产权中小企业服务平台撰写的。 尼克拥有超过25年的个人调查和制止假冒活动的经验。在过去的6年里，他几乎专门致力于揭露葡萄酒造假者并在整个葡萄酒行业传播，并对当今中国的葡萄酒造假者使用的策略和方法有着广泛的了解。
“It is hopeless. China is the size of the USA, with population over four times. They counterfeit everything, everywhere. Nothing can be done. If my wine is counterfeited, I have zero chance.” Your writer quivers every time these phrases are uttered. On every occasion I have to freeze my tongue, whilst controlling my eye roll.
It cannot be denied China has a penchant for counterfeiting. But for a wine owner of any size or finance, to throw in the towel and implicitly conceding their product is copyright free is nonsense. This notion is about as foolish as purposely leaving home with one’s front door wide open.
For 25 plus years I have worked in China against counterfeiters of many different consumer goods. Whilst this does not qualify me to oracle status, I probably have more familiarity than the bloke at the other end of the bar. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to dispel hot air and waffle by setting out some simple pointers for wine owners to consider.
Be prepared!
Whether your wine is already on the market in China, or planning to be in, checks need to be carried out to see if your product can be found. Given most consumer products are available on the Internet, the job is not complicated. Forget western search engines such as Google; they do not dig deep enough. Use www.baidu.com as it is powerful, and delves deep into Chinese websites and language nuances. Baidu’s downside is irritating pop-up advertising, and no English auto translate, so for that just cut and paste text into Google.
There is no need to discover what the Chinese name of your wine might be. Just search using the words on your label; the prestige of foreign wine is in its original name, and not a Chinese translation.
What should you do if you find suspect wine? Continue searching to see if there are other wines from your competitors. If yes, then talk to them and share information. When it comes to counterfeiting, you and your competitors are uniquely on the same side. But, under no circumstances let them make any inquiries about the problem. Often wine importers or those at the top of the supply chain are responsible for counterfeiting. Innocent or not, they need to be kept in the dark as you work through the next steps.
Be sure the wine in question is counterfeit. Calculate back from the sales price to your sales price taking into account shipping, 50% taxes and 50% dealer mark-ups. Obtain a bottle through numerous inexpensive English speaking companies on the Internet offering mystery shopper services.
When you obtain wine to analyse, carefully study the label and the capsule for any printing irregularity. But just as importantly, look at the glass inscriptions and dot-codes moulded into the bottle base. You will immediately be able to identify if it is your bottle. Contrary to the popular belief, Chinese glass manufacturers are incapable of counterfeiting a bottle perfectly to include the colour. Of course you must taste the wine, but the result will not by itself be relevant. Chinese enforcement authorities will react to visible obvious inaccuracies, as opposed to the subjectivity of taste.
Total Immersion
At this point you are probably gazing into space, wondering if all this is real. All I can advise is to stick with it. If you want to succeed in China it must be treated in a way beyond all imagination. China is a top to tail project. Immerse yourself, and do not treat it just as a place to receive orders and then sleep until, hopefully, the next one. Your job is as much that of a sleuth, as being a wine seller.
Never forget that periodic small orders from China can lead you to counterfeits. All too often imports are made to obtain paperwork to authenticate counterfeits. For example, one genuine imported bottle can be used to create a thousand copies.
Having established that your wine has been counterfeited, preferably locate an intellectual property attorney in China who has a department that specialises in counterfeit control. Searching google in English is best as this guarantees that the firm will have language capabilities. One such firm is www.fipa.cn but there are many others too.
An Alternative Approach to Brand Protection
The good news is that help awaits you in China, but perhaps not in the way to be expected. Intellectual property law is one important way to enforce your rights but arguably, for wine, using the consumer protection route can be extraordinarily beneficial. In other articles on this website explanations have been offered on registering trademarks, and whilst this is important, one cannot always rely on the Chinese authorities to invest tax payers’ money to protect your rights, under criminal law.
From an enforcement perspective, consumer protection law is a powerful weapon which is not to be overlooked. Over the years there have been many food and drink scandals and not a week passes by without another horror story. As a consequence, China has bulked up local and regional enforcement offices. The last thing China needs is people being hospitalised due to profiteering bandits selling contaminated goods. Public enforcement authorities without doubt prioritise protection of the public, ahead of intellectual property.
The two main enforcement departments are the Food and Drug Administration www.sda.gov.cn and a quite separate department known as Quality Inspection and Supervision www.aqsiq.gov.cn. Both have over lapping responsibilities but similar powers of raiding and seizures. Their job is to protect the public from fraud, and be sure that the product being sold is safe.
Apart from the obvious problems of dangerous food and drink, these authorities also tackle mislabelling. For example, goods claim to be from one source (say, you) when in fact they are from another unauthorised source. Officers will raid, seize product from offenders and then prosecute in order to protect the public on the basis of what is written on the label. The information must be what the product is, which by definition includes origin.
In short, the result achieved for you comes through the protection of the Chinese public, and not just through public officials working to protect your intellectual property rights, and business. You win, the officials win, the public win, and the bad guys lose.
Accessing these authorities is straightforward as they have offices throughout China. Any member of the public, including foreigners, may file a complaint, which can be a simple letter comprising of a few paragraphs. This is best done through a local lawyer, or better still an intellectual property specialist such as a trademark attorney who, by definition, is less expensive. Offices with English capabilities are found on Google. It is recommended that you approach three for quotes. Pick the one who makes the job sound simplest, and be sure they understand you are making a consumer complaint, not an intellectual property complaint.
Very possibly the attorney will require a power-of-attorney stating that you have authorised them to make the compliant. They may also recommend providing copies of your Chinese registered trademarks to the authority. This is helpful, although not procedurally necessary.
Apart from the attorney fees, you will not be exposed to any other fees as the matter will be processed and financed by the public purse. The authority will also prosecute offenders, or more likely impose administrative fines and penalties.
Quite possibly the offender you have identified will be a reseller, but it is the job of the authority to trace back to whomsoever else in the supply chain, all the way back to the producer. The Chinese authorities are noted for their persuasiveness in extracting information out of offenders. Only the brave or stupid do not cooperate.
Once an authority is underway with the case, your chosen attorney must keep in touch with them to track progress. But remember, your case will be handled as a criminal matter, and whilst you are pivotal in bringing the matter to their attention, you are not directly party to the criminal action and therefore are not entitled to be kept informed.
The above is really a snap-shot of how to tackle problems you may have, or could be faced with in future. No one will claim that this is at all straight forward, but it has to be tackled. All too often I have come across the attitude that a few wine sales a year to China, which are then counterfeited, are sales that would otherwise have not been made. This ostrich syndrome must not be you. China’s wine making skills are advancing which could easily result in the counterfeits tasting every bit as good as your wine, but not from you.
Selling wine to China is not just a business of receiving orders and shipping wine. Rather it is a complete project that must be embraced, watched and nurtured. Any lesser approach is a recipe for disaster. And who wants that when the country is the biggest wine growth market, the likes of which will never be witnessed again, in any country on this planet.
Searches should include the term 葡萄酒, the Chinese for ‘wine’ along with the English or Chinese name for the wine/brand.
This article was written for the China IPR SME Helpdesk by counterfeiting expert and investigator Nick Bartman. Nick has over 25 years of experience personally investigating and putting a stop to counterfeiting activities, 20 of which he has spent working in China for some of the biggest brands and household names. Over the last 6 years he has worked almost exclusively to expose wine counterfeiters and spread the word throughout the wine industry and has developed an extensive knowledge of the strategies and methodologies used by wine counterfeiters in China today.
