Action against Counterfeit Tata Steel Wire Products
Tata Sons Limited (“TATA”), a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913 are owners of the Intellectual Property Rights including trademark and copyrights in the brand and marks “TATA”. Tata Steel Limited is one of the leading steel producing Companies globally and is a sister concern of Tata Sons Limited and is authorized by Tata Sons to conduct its business and use the brands / marks containing the word “TATA” for sale of its products.
Recently, Tata Steel received information that counterfeit of Tata Steel’s product ( Steel Wires) bearing the mark “TATA WIRON” are being manufactured and sold by one M/S Umiya Wire Factory located at Plot No. 461, Dediyasan GIDC, Dist Mehsana, Gujarat and M/s Shree Umiya Steel located at 57, Dhanlaxmi Market, Malgodown, Mehsana, Gujarat.
After confirmation of the information, Tata Steel requested Mehsana Police to take appropriate legal action against the said counterfeiters. Accordingly, Crime Branch of Mehsana Police conducted a raid at the aforesaid Factory on 14th Nov 2018. During the raid, it was found that M/S Umiya Wire Factory has been manufacturing counterfeit barbed wires marked and wrapped as Tata Wiron. The factory is owned by Mr. Upen Kumar Arvind Bhai Patel, a resident of Panchot, Distt Mehesana, Gujarat and currently living at 109, Tirupati Sahiba Society, Radhanpur Road, Mehsana.
During the raid, besides a Barbed Wire manufacturing machine, following materials worth lacs used for making counterfeit barbed wires in the name of ‘Tata Wiron’ were found in the factory :-
- Galvanized 12-14 gazed counterfeit Barbed wire packed in Tata Wiron bundles – 31 nos
- Corrugated packing boxes with Tata Steel Wiron marks – 7 nos
- Bundles of wire from 10 gaze to 16 gaze - 114 nos.
The products manufactured at the aforesaid premises and sold under the Trade Mark ‘TATA WIRON’ were found to be counterfeit. In addition to that the counterfeiters M/S Umiya Wire Factory has also been printing and using the packaging material of ‘TATA WIRON’ to dupe the consumers by passing on the counterfeit products as a Tata Product.
The Owners, employees, representatives, agents etc of M/S Umiya Wire Factory by manufacturing and selling the counterfeit products under the Trade Mark Tata Wiron and by using duplicate packaging material of Tata Wiron unauthorisedly in the markets have not only been infringing the Intellectual Property Rights of Tata Sons but also misrepresenting, cheating and committing fraud upon innocent Consumers who had been purchasing the products “TATA WIRON” under the belief that it was a “TATA” product.
Tata Steel has lodged an FIR vide case no.- 20/18 dated 14.11.2018 Under Section 420 Indian Penal Code for misrepresentation, cheating, forgery and committing fraud, Under Section 63 / 65 of Copyright Act and 102/103/ 104 of Trade mark Act for manufacturing and selling counterfeit products and infringing our trademark.
Tata Steel will continue to take stern legal action against all such counterfeiters to bring them to book.
About Tata Steel
Tata Steel Group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 27 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as on March 31, 2018. It is the world's second-most geographically-diversified steel producer, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Group recorded a consolidated turnover of US $20.41 billion (INR 133,016 crore) in FY18. Tata Steel Group is spread across five continents with an employee base of nearly 74,000. Tata Steel retained Industry Leader position in FY18 and ranked second overall in the DJSI assessment, 2017. The Company has been recognised as the Climate Disclosure Leader in ‘Steel category’ by CDP (2017). Besides being a member of the World Steel Climate Action Programme, Tata Steel was felicitated with several awards including the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the best performing integrated steel plant for 2014-15 and 2015-16, Best Risk Management by CNBC TV18 (2018) and ‘Corporate Strategy Award’ by Mint (2018). The Company also received the ‘Most Ethical Company’ award from Ethisphere Institute for the sixth time (2018), Steel Sustainability Champions (2017) by the World Steel Association, Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Awards (2017 & 2018), Golden Peacock HR Excellence Award by Institute of Directors (2017) as well as 'Asia's Best Integrated Report' award by the Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards (2017), among several others.
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