Hong Kong'S "Shadow Company" Is Close To Famous Clothing Brands

"L'Oreal Cosmetics International Group Co., Ltd. of France", "Changyu Wine Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong"... Looking at the products with such company names, I'm afraid you won't have any doubt. However, these are likely to be a scam. In fact, they have nothing to do with famous "brand" products such as L'Oreal and Changyu.

Recently, the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong SAR passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2010 on third reading. The amended bill authorizes the Registrar of Companies of the HKSAR Government to direct the "shadow company" to change its name in accordance with the order of the court.

"Shadow companies" fly everywhere

In recent years, the registration of "shadow companies" in Hong Kong has become an upgraded practice of manufacturing and selling counterfeit products. The "shadow company" is the most rampant in the clothing field. Youngor, Valentino, Baoxiniao, Shanshan, Romon, Old Man, Apple and other well-known brands at home and abroad have been "shunned".

In addition to clothing, household appliances, cosmetics, wine, drinks, paint, and even drugs have the phenomenon of "being close to famous brands", such as "Hong Kong Libang", "Hong Kong Changyu", etc.

Wang Qiang, the head of the legal affairs department of Changyu Wine Group, said in an interview that at most, there were 29 "Changyu" companies selling "fake" Changyu. "From 2005 to 2007, the company spent at least several million yuan every year to fight against these 'shadow companies'."

Wang Qiang said, "As a last resort, in 2007, we took 29 'shadow companies' to the courts in Hong Kong. Finally, the courts in Hong Kong ruled that' shadow companies' infringed, and the situation was improved to a certain extent. But Zhang Yu also spent a lot of energy and time on this."

The injured famous enterprises in the mainland are "very welcome"

Chen Jiaqiang, Secretary for Financial Affairs and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, introduced that the amendment of the draft is to strengthen the company name registration system in Hong Kong to strengthen the enforcement of "shadow companies".

In this regard, Wang Qiang, who has been struggling with "shadow companies" since 2005, described his mood with "very welcome".

Wang Qiang believes that the new rules of Hong Kong have greatly reduced the difficulty for famous enterprises to crack down on "shadow companies". Previously, it could only be solved through litigation. Enterprises will spend a lot of time, energy and financial resources to deal with it. In the future, it should be much more convenient.

After the amendment of the draft, the Registrar of Companies of the SAR Government was authorized to "replace the name of the company with its registration number", because there was no word about the brand in the registration number, the "shadow company" could not be authorized to the actual controllers in the mainland.

A hundred foot worm dies without stiffness

Hu Yanlai, a partner of Shanghai Maritime Law Firm who has been paying close attention to the phenomenon of "being close to famous brands", told the reporter that this would be "a heavy blow" to the phenomenon of "being close to famous brands". However, Hu Yanlai believes that it is still difficult to completely eradicate the phenomenon of "shadow companies".

For Hu Yan, if the mainland enterprises do not reflect, the Hong Kong government may not know which of the registered companies are "shadow companies". In the mainland, the Hong Kong government may know about famous enterprises such as Moutai and Youngor, but it may not know about some provincial famous enterprises in the mainland.

Based on the above situation, Hu Yanlai believes that to fundamentally solve the problem, it is necessary to strictly check the registration of the company and eliminate the emergence of "shadow companies" at the source. Wang Qiang also held the same view, pointing out that "if the registered name is suspected of infringement, Hong Kong can not allow the registration."

However, this undoubtedly requires cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland in information work. The mainland should help the Hong Kong government to compile a list of famous mainland enterprises for future reference.

In this regard, Hu Yanlai said that the production of the directory is not a big problem. The biggest difficulty lies in the difference between the filing system in Hong Kong and the review system in the mainland, as well as the different legislative concepts and systems in the two places. It may be difficult for the SAR government to directly refuse to register enterprises suspected of being "near famous brands".