Recently, Chang Tsi & Partners supported BorgWarner, one of the world's largest auto parts suppliers, to protect its intellectual property right in China, and achieve a successful result. 

Turbocharger products are one of the core products of BorgWarner, which provides power solutions for many world-renowned auto manufacturers. However, a number of fake turbochargers with BorgWarner’s trademarks have entered local market, which in turn has become a serious threat to consumers’ safety and BorgWarner’s reputation. 

In May 2020, after a careful investigation by Chang Tsi & Partners and BorgWarner, a full chain of legal actions was carried out. We assisted the local police and other relevant agencies in locating two large-scale infringing turbocharger workshops and the sales network. 

On 15 December 2020, 46 police officers from Zhejiang and Ningbo descended two major illegal workshops, where 7,887 finished or semi-finished infringing products and about 19,000 infringing marks and packages were found and seized, approximately valuing 41 million CNY. In addition, 12 suspects were arrested by the police.

Considering a large number of infringing products and huge distribution network involving 18 provinces, the Ministry of Public Security launched a cluster campaign against the distributors. In 2021, Chang Tsi, on behalf of BorgWarner, worked closely with the Ningbo Public Security to launch targeted criminal crackdowns on key distributors in 6 provinces, arresting a number of criminal suspects, and detaining a large number of unsold infringing products.

The court sentenced the source counterfeiters penalties from 11 months to 3 years and 3 months in prison along with high compensations. Until now, BorgWarner has received nearly 2 million CNY in compensation through criminal settlements.

We are proud to see that it is now difficult to find infringing BorgWarner turbochargers in the auto parts market. In this case, representing BorgWarner, Chang Tsi & Partners participated in the formulation of rights protection strategy from the very beginning. We conducted big data analyses to identify the source, and supported our client going through the subsequent litigation and settlement process. We are not only professional in providing tailored legal advice for clients, but also keen at formulating practical and feasible IP strategy costumed for each client.