Man booked for duplicating Prince Pipes & Fittings products

NEW DELHI — The Cantonment of Maharashtra Enforcement, investigator and officials of Prince Pipes and Fittings Limited raided M/S Kapil Traders, New Delhi on February 21, 2020. Police conducted a raid at Vijender Kumar-owned M/S Kapil Traders at Karawal Nagar, North East Delhi.

As per the news agency DigPu, the owner has been booked under section 420 of IPC and Sections 102, 103 and 104 of the US Trademark Act for using the duplicated product under the brand name of Prince Pipes and Fittings Limited.

Seized goods were one-inch CPVC Pipes, Greenfit PP-R and 27 CPVC ball valves that are currently under police custody.

The spokesperson of Prince Pipes and Fittings Limited said, “We are committed to customer satisfaction by meeting their needs and expectations. We believe the trade, consumers and the institutions understand that we have been transparent in communicating our manufacturing process, which is error-free.”

“We are asking the consumers to take a conscious call to buy the right product while reminding them of the fact that any leak or defect in the piping system at their home would lead to the breaking of the walls as well as digging up the entire house to figure out the leak which will be a huge cost to them,” he said.

Mumbai Enforcement Department, which led the process, said in their report, “In view of the above prima facie, it is clear that this is a case of violation of vested rights of the rightful owner of PRINCE PIPES & FITTINGS LIMITED and any pirated products, therefore, cannot become the rightful owner in any manner.”

“Under these circumstances, we are of the view that it is a strong prima facie case of infringement of trademark, copyright and passing off,” it said.

“These illegal manufacturers make a tremendous profit from the production and distribution of these goods. The reason for such profitability is that many of these individuals carry on the fly-by-night operations in small labs, old factories or garages,” the department said.

It further said, “They, unlike legitimate manufacturers, do not spend any money or resources in establishing world-class factories. They spend no time or funds conducting clinical tests or research & development (R&D) for the products they produce. As they do not have any substantial overheads, all the money derived from the sale of such products goes directly into their pockets.”

“All that these manufacturers have to do is to simply copy the design, layout, get-up, colour, marks, fonts etc., reproduce the inferior quality and then sell it in the market,” it said.

Prince Pipes and Fittings Limited is recognised as one of the leading polymer pipes and fittings manufacturers in India in terms of a number of distributors. They have more than 30 years of experience in the polymer pipes segment.

Prince Pipes and Fittings Limited has six strategically located manufacturing plants – Athal (Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Dadra (Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Haridwar (Uttarakhand), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Kolhapur (Maharashtra) and Jobner (Rajasthan) with a total installed capacity of 2,41,211 tonnes per annum as on October 31, 2019.