Prosecution of Director for 'Infringement of Industrial Property Rights'

Previously, on July 4, 2024, the Department of Investigation Police on Corruption, Economic, Smuggling, and Environmental Crimes of Nghe An Provincial Police coordinated with the Market Management Department of Nghe An Province to conduct an inspection at the production workshop of ECOTECH Investment and Trading Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as ECOTECH Company) directed by Nguyen Thanh Dan (born in 1975), residing in Trung Do Ward, Vinh City, Nghe An Province.

During the inspection, it was discovered that at the ECOTECH Company factory, a number of workers were producing tile adhesive products and packaging the finished products into packages labeled with the image of a "crocodile" - showing signs ofinfringement of industrial property rights.

At the factory, there are many types of tile adhesive and grout products packaged with the image of a "crocodile" printed on them, and many types of packaging with the "crocodile" brand printed on them used to package finished tile adhesive products, along with machinery, equipment and raw materials to serve the production and packaging of products.

The Investigation Police Agency of Nghe An Province temporarily detained the related evidence for verification. After the arrest, the authorities conducted an emergency search of the tile adhesive product business establishments of ECOTECH Company in many different localities and temporarily detained the evidence at ECOTECH Company and related tile adhesive product business establishments including: 62,120 kg of CROCODILE GREEN, RED, BLUE, GERTECH tile adhesives and TILE GROUT grout all with the image of a "crocodile".

In addition, more than 25,170 packaging of various types printed with the "crocodile" trademark and evidence related to the production process were seized, including: 01 truck; 01 set of electric and heat presses for packaging; 01 hand-held machine for sewing packaging; 01 machine for stamping the date, month, and year of manufacture.

At the Investigation Agency, Nguyen Thanh Dan confessed to all his crimes. Accordingly, in 2022, when he saw that the "crocodile" brand was a product brand of a Thai-made tile adhesive company that was popular in the market, Dan came up with the idea of ​​using packaging with the image, color and "crocodile" brand representing the above Company on the product packaging designed by the subject himself to increase sales.

Currently, the case is being further investigated and expanded for handling according to the provisions of law.