JBL

JBL (on behalf of James Bullough Lansing - James Bullow Lansing) is an American company producing acoustics and audio equipment, part of the Harman International Industries association.

History

2023: Russian speaker maker Ural wins trial against JBL in device design copying case

On December 6, 2023, it became known that the Russian supplier of acoustic systems Ural won the court against the American manufacturer of audio equipment Harman International Industries, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. The proceedings are related to the design of portable speakers of the JBL brand, the rights to which belong to Harman. Read more here.

2021: Detection of 1145 facts of illegal trade in an offline environment and receipt of 18,261,395 rubles compensation

On December 27, 2021, HARMAN shared the results of 2021. For the fifth year in a row, the company has been fighting the sale of counterfeit goods in Russia under the JBL brand. From January to October 2021, the manufacturer and its partners discovered 1,145 facts of illegal trade in an offline environment, as well as 3,353 links to online platforms selling fake JBL headphones and speakers. During this period, the court satisfied 741 claims in favor of the copyright holder with a total compensation of 18,261,395 rubles.

The ratio between counterfeit speakers and headphones is 57% to 43%. Attackers prefer to sell old speaker models such as JBL Charge 3, JBL Charge 4, JBL Boombox, etc. New items on sale are quite rare.

Knowing about the active struggle of the copyright holder with fakes, violators are less likely to supply the goods with JBL marking. So, in Moscow retail outlets, 60% of devices are not equipped with branded nameplates, and in Novosibirsk they are 100%. The trend of 2021 is an imitation of the form of original products without additional identification marks, although this approach does not save violators from responsibility. A copy of the form, registered as an industrial design, is also punishable by law.

The total volume of counterfeit goods in offline sales is gradually decreasing. If in 2020 215 facts of illegal trade were discovered in Moscow, then in 2021 there were only 172 of them. A similar trend can be traced in Voronezh, Kostroma, Rostov, Perm, Novosibirsk. St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region remain the leader in counterfeit trade, as before: compared to 2020, the volume of sales of counterfeit JBL products here increased by 47%. Growth is also noticeable in Krasnoyarsk and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

There are fewer pavilions in Moscow radio markets where JBL speakers and headphones are sold for fakes. There are only 19 of them left, although a year ago there were 38, and in 2017, at the very beginning of the campaign against the counterfeit trade, HARMAN partners found 78 outlets. In the wholesale markets of the capital, it was possible to fix 104 pavilions in which fakes are sold. If possible, non-original goods are seized and destroyed: for example, 2,448 units of counterfeit goods were seized in 2021.

The main source of counterfeit products are purchases China from small batches, as well as purchases from wholesale and clothing markets Moscow or regions. Retail outlets remained the same: small shops "at home," where it is sold, electronics islets in shopping centers, salons cellular communications, , repair departments and. electronic engineers phones

In 2021, HARMAN partners checked 67 of the largest shopping centers and cinemas in Moscow and discovered 17 slot machines with prizes in the form of counterfeit JBL products. After notifying the management of shopping centers and contacting the police, violations were no longer repeated. However, checks are not only taking place in the capital. For example, employees of the Krasnodar customs and Rospotrebnadzor, together with law enforcement agencies, conducted a customs inspection of the Successful Purchase store in Slavyansk-on-Kuban and seized 62 units of fake JBL headphones, and 56 units were confiscated in the Hello store in Novosibirsk.

In 2021, the sale of counterfeit goods was recorded in at least 10 salons of one of the top Russian telecom operators. The operator transfers responsibility to the unscrupulous supplier. HARMAN partners have determined the estimated volume of counterfeit imported, identified a manufacturing plant in China and plan to take the case to court.

According to the supervision of the manufacturer's partners, most wholesalers moved to the online segment. In 2021, 3,353 links were found for which you can order a wholesale batch of counterfeit JBL - this is twice as much as in 2020. Of these, 3,217 lead to message boards, 95 to online stores and 131 to social networks. The top 3 sites hosting the largest number of illegal trading offers include ozon.ru, Avito.ru and wildberries.ru. sites

From January to November 2021, inclusive, HARMAN partners, together with law enforcement agencies, blocked 8737 pages on marketplaces, 8156 ads on social networks, as well as 212 sites selling fake JBL products. The copyright holder sent 3,387 claims to site owners and hosting sites demanding the removal of illegal trading offers and blocking sites whose name uses the JBL trademark.

If the violator refuses to peacefully resolve the conflict, the copyright holder takes the case to court. In 2021, 29 administrative cases were opened and 1,100 trials were initiated, 14 of which were in relation to wholesalers. 741 claims for December 2021 satisfied.

The defendants are not only owners of small electronics stores and wholesalers, but also large regional retail chains with a total claim of more than 5,000,000 rubles. The litigation also concerns the illegal use of HARMAN trademarks in the domain name. So, the owner of the site jbl.one undertakes to pay 500,000 rubles in compensation.

The company and its partners will continue to fight counterfeit products in the future, as it gives visible results.

2020: Results of the year in the fight against counterfeit products

On December 24, 2020, HARMAN, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, specializing in the development of technologies for the automotive, consumer and corporate markets, announced that it continues to fight the illegal sale of counterfeit goods in Russia under the JBL brand. From January to November 2020, inclusive, the manufacturer and its partners revealed more than 1328 violations in an offline environment and filed a record number of lawsuits - 1268 against 2194 for the entire period of operation since 2017. 891 of them are already satisfied in favor of the copyright holder.

According to the company, for the fourth year in a row, HARMAN partners have been inspecting Russian Internet resources and retail outlets. Their goal is to fix the wholesale and retail sale of counterfeit products labeled JBL, to achieve its withdrawal from the market and the closure of sites with illegal commodity offers. In the period from January to November 2020, 2,764 units of counterfeit goods were seized and compensation was collected from violators in the amount of 15,042,615 rubles.

From January to November 2020, inclusive, HARMAN partners, together with law enforcement agencies, blocked 27,000 pages on message boards and social networks, as well as 160 sites selling fake JBL products. In total, the company prevented the sale of counterfeit goods for 50 million rubles.

The activity of one-page sites in CPA networks offering to illegally purchase JBL speakers and headphones has decreased by almost 6 times. This is the result of the active work of law enforcement agencies and partners of HARMAN. The Intellectual Property Court found that CPA platforms are responsible for distributing goods sold through their services and cannot be exempted from liability. Webmasters and CPA networks refuse to post offers for counterfeit JBL products, as this entails many problems: sites are forcibly blocked, and administrators receive lawsuits. In 2019, HARMAN won 5 major cases against CPA networks in the amount of about 13 million rubles. In 2020, only 114 one-page sites were discovered, 85 of which have already stopped working.

The efforts of the company and its partners were also aimed at marketplaces. The number of offers here increased by 143% compared to 2019. The most "fruitful" was the avito.ru website, where 70% of offers for the sale of counterfeit goods labeled JBL were found, while the site itself actively cooperates with HARMAN partners in finding and reacting to attempts to sell counterfeit goods. In the first 11 months of 2020, 7,293 (81%) ads and 19,597 (98%) social media posts offering to buy fakes were deleted.

In 2020, a significant decline in the number of violations in the former leading regions was recorded. On 258.29%, sales of counterfeit JBL in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region decreased, on 190.1% in Moscow and on whole 1,883,33% in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug and Omsk.

A well-developed strategy and tactics to combat counterfeit products made it possible to minimize violations in four regions: only 7 violations were found in Rostov and Perm, 6 in Novosibirsk, and not a single one was found in the North Caucasus Federal District.

The number of pavilions in Moscow radio markets, where JBL products are traded in fakes, decreased from 78 to 38 in 2017. No more than 10 such pavilions were found on the wholesale capital markets. Counterfeit is seized and destroyed if possible. So, in 11 months in Moscow, 658 fakes were destroyed (475 headphones and 183 speakers). The cases of those sellers who refused to cooperate with the copyright holder were transferred to court. In 2020, at the initiative of HARMAN, 1268 lawsuits were filed and 21 administrative cases were opened. The average compensation for retail trade is 100,000 rubles, for small wholesale - 1 million.

According to the observations of HARMAN partners, in 2020, most wholesalers moved to the online segment. As of December 2020, 1,524 links have been found where you can purchase a wholesale batch of counterfeit JBL. The logistics of importing fakes remained the same: the goods are made to order in the People's Republic of China and are imported through an intermediary in small quantities. To avoid prosecution for the distribution of counterfeit products, the product is not marked with branded nameplates with the JBL logo. Approximately 40% of fake headphones and speakers continue to be sold unmarked, but this does not relieve sellers of liability. By illegally copying the form factor of goods, they violate the company's exclusive rights to industrial designs. In 2020, wholesalers received 11 lawsuits from HARMAN.

Retail trade is carried out mainly in small stores "at home," on the islands in the shopping center, in mobile salons and electronics repair departments.

Counterfeit products are not certified and cannot guarantee compliance with technical characteristics. The sound in pirated speakers and JBL headphones is low quality, and the battery capacity may not be enough for comfortable use. Customers get negative impressions and stop trusting the brand. Moreover, sometimes fake goods can even pose a threat to health, because no one controls the safety of materials and the stability of the electrical system.

HARMAN has been fighting the sale of counterfeit products since 2017, and this has yielded results. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the wholesale trade in fake JBL devices has almost disappeared. The vast majority of sites that illegally use HARMAN trademarks in the domain and mislead buyers are blocked on the Internet. For the entire period, 5788 units of counterfeit goods were seized. The company will continue to fight the sale of pirated products online and offline. Particular attention will be paid to combating the illegal use of form factors of original HARMAN products.