Officers from Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs’ Center for Fighting Consumer Market Offenses and from Yekaterinburg Customs’ Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department inspected a number of stores in Hanoi Shopping Mall in Yekaterinburg. This was done within the framework of the agreement on cooperation in the field of intellectual property rights protection, signed by Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs and Yekaterinburg Customs in 2009, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports.

The officers checked two shoe shops whose assortment included sports footwear bearing the logos of Adidas AG and Adidas International Marketing B.V.

Prior to this check, the customs authorities sent a query to the trademark owner representative, Moscow-based OOO Vlasta-Consulting. The authorities inquired whether these two shops sold Adidas products legitimately. The reply to the query stated that the two shops were not authorized to use the trademark in question.

During the check, two groups of officers arrived at the shop unexpectedly and therefore managed to find all the shop assistants and administrators as well as their passports and other papers in one place. As soon as the inspection started, the word ‘Adidas’ was whispered loudly throughout the crowd in the mall, so some of the other shops started closing very fast, with all the shop assistants disappearing.

In the end, 905 pairs of fake Adidas shoes were registered, confiscated, packed, and taken to the Center for Fighting Consumer Market Offenses.

The authorities are currently considering prosecuting the offenders in accordance with the existing legislation.