Chinese Customs Crack Down on Tire Counterfeits

On July 18, the customs office of the Chinese city of Qingdao reported that a batch of counterfeit motorcycle tires and tubes, totaling 10,255 pieces, had been seized in the Huangdao area.

During the inspection, it was found that 2,705 and 500 tires had the logos of Cordial and Continental Revolution Metro, respectively, and 6,950 tubes had the logos of Ceat Secura M86. However, all the copyright holders confirmed that the products were manufactured with the unauthorized use of the specified trademarks.

The Cordial brand belongs to the Chinese company Sichuan Yuanxing Rubber, and the Continental Revolution and Ceat Secura trademarks are owned by the German Continental and Indian Ceat companies, respectively.

The customs office emphasized that, in accordance with the laws of the PRC, they are obliged to protect the rights of intellectual property holders, and if goods are imported or exported in violation of the law, they are subject to confiscation, and in the event of a crime being established, criminal liability is provided.

It is also noted that in Huangdao, customs officials confiscate a large number of tires manufactured with trademark violations every year, which are then sent for disposal. In particular, in March 2024, 12 tons of motorcycle tires with illegally applied logos of such brands as MRF, Cordial, and Ceat were disposed of.

Tire disposal is handled by professional companies that extract technical carbon, metal, etc. from them.