Beijing Courts Hands Down Jail Terms Against Dealers of Counterfeit QLogic Products

QLogic Corp. announced
a significant milestone in the war against counterfeit products and
gray market activity. On 12 December, 2007, the Beijing Haidian
District Court sentenced two counterfeit QLogic networking products dealers to imprisonment ranging from 11 months to two years in jail and fines. The Beijing Haidian District Court convicted computer product dealer, Beijing JinPin High Technology Development Co., Ltd. (“Beijing Jinpin”) and
its sales manager, Mr. Fang Zhengquan for trading in counterfeit
networking products bearing the registered trademarks of QLogic
Corporation. Beijing Jinpin was fined and Mr. Zhengquan was fined and
sentenced to 11 months in jail. Mr. Geng Jianfei was sentenced to two years in jail and fined for his role in sourcing and supplying the counterfeit equipment to Beijing Jinpin for resale.

The cases started in January 2007 after the Administrative Department for Industry and Commerce (“AIC”) and the Public Security Bureau (“PSB”) of the Haidian District, Beijing raided Beijing Jinpin for trademark counterfeiting of QLogic networking products. During the raid, counterfeit QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs and other evidence detailing the counterfeiting operations were seized. Both Mr. Zhengquan and Mr. Jianfei were also arrested and taken into police custody during the enforcement action.  The raid was a result of intensive investigations conducted by QLogic which found the Defendants were involved in the distribution of counterfeit QLogic HBA networking products to customers from various parts of the world.  During the court case, the Court found both Mr. Zhengquan and Mr. Jianfei individually liable for trademark counterfeiting as evidence showed that they had used company operations to trade in counterfeit QLogic equipment without authorization for personal gain.

“We believe that these court decisions and in particular the immediate prison sentences sends a very strong message to counterfeiters that the law enforcement authorities in Beijing and QLogic Corporation are serious in fighting intellectual property rights violations,” said Roger Klein, vice president and general manager, QLogic Host Solutions Group. “We will be working to ensure that other such law enforcement activities will continue in Beijing and will be followed in other regions of China and Asia.”

QLogic Corp.