Ten in custody for allegedly producing fake Ultraman toys
Fake Ultraman toys seized by police
Ten suspects have been apprehended for allegedly producing fake Ultraman toys, Shanghai police said on Tuesday.
The copyright owner of the toys is Japanese toymaker Bandai.
Police in Changning District started their investigation at the end of last year after a resident reported that he probably purchased a fake Ultraman toy from an Internet shop.
The toy he purchased was later identified as a counterfeit by the copyright owner.
The shop offered a wide range of fake Ultraman toys sold at below-market prices.
A man surnamed Zhen who allegedly ran the shop was taken into custody in Fujian Province in January, and the suspects who allegedly produced the fake toys were later tracked down in Guangdong Province.
The fake products were sold to Zhen and a few other Internet shop owners for between 3 (47 US cents) and 15 yuan per item and then sold to customers for 79 to 158 yuan.
Police seized more than 400,000 of the fake toys, the authentic counterparts of which would be worth 46 million yuan.
Shanghai police said they have solved more than 110 copyright infringement cases involving over 370 million yuan so far this year.
