The OEM continued its fight against counterfeiters in a series of raids in Mumbai and Chennai, and sent a message of zero tolerance 
“towards the sale of fake cartridges”.
Data Quest reported that counterfeiters were found to be “filling, bottling, packaging and distributing counterfeit Epson ink”, and that police are working in different parts of the country, increasing their cooperation with Epson, to arrest and put a stop to those in the business of making fake products. Epson’s vigilance team gave information to Mumbai police recently, who were then able to successfully raid the “premises of a dealer” in Kalbadevi.
Ashok Prajapati was involved in the “packaging of counterfeit Epson ink bottles for various printer models and was supplying those counterfeit packed Epson ink bottles to various retailers in Mumbai and in other cities”. Police found “10,342 pieces of bar code stickers” as well as “1,773 counterfeit ink bottles, 4,110 empty bottles with [the] Epson trademark, 30,200 ink bottle wrappers and stickers […] and 215 litres of inks” all of which were seized in one of the biggest raids by the OEM.
In Chennai police carried out similar raids this November in the T. Nagar and Saidapet aream and were successful in seizing more Epson counterfeit products from dealers who were manufacturing and supplying fake ink bottles. 500 of these were seized as well as 2,729 Epson labels “along with other printing materials and machines used by this business for making counterfeit Epson ink bottles”. Police issued a seizure memo, and a first information report (FIR) was registered against the business owners.
The OEM plans to continue to work with the police in future raids to protect its interests, as well as those of the company’s authorised dealers. A spokesperson for Epson said that “we view the infringement of our patents very seriously and counterfeiting would be the most important of these. We will continue to fight against those that inappropriately use Epson’s patented technology.
“We would like to extend special accolades for Mumbai and Chennai police force in successfully conducting these counterfeit raids and limiting the damages to a bare minimum. Maintaining high standards of corporate ethics while encouraging everyone to respect the rights is the paramount objective at Epson”.