Protecting the Interest of Responsible Manufacturers

An in-depth report on anti-counterfeiting action for Uchiya

Thermostats produced by Uchiya.

Uchiya Thermostat Co., Ltd. (Uchiya) is a manufacturer in Saitama, Japan, specializing in thermostats, thermal protectors and thermal cutouts that are usually incorporated in consumer electronic products and vehicles. Uchiya’s products are marketed in all parts of the world and the company has acquired global certifications for most of its products, most of which also carry the UL Mark.

In July 2006, Uchiya came to know that counterfeits of its thermal protectors were supplied to one of the end product manufacturers. Uchiya reported the case to UL’s Anti-Counterfeiting Operations and has successfully ceased the production of the related counterfeit products.

Masao Uchiya, President of Uchiya, and Haruo Tanaka, Managing Director, told the story.

At that time, Uchiya was supplying UL-Certified thermal protectors to a manufacturer in China. The manufacturer used the thermal protectors to assemble motors and supplied them to a pump manufacturer. Counterfeit protectors were found in the end products in which the pumps were incorporated. For this reason those end products were considered defective. Upon receiving the report on the incident, Uchiya launched an investigation. The thermal protectors incorporated in the pump motors had the same size and appearance as the original product and carried a stamped trademark of Uchiya and model number. However, such were counterfeits with inferior quality.

Counterfeit — a threat to credence

Recognizing that counterfeits can hurt the company’s reputation, Masao Uchiya took several measures. First, he issued a notice in Japanese, English and Chinese and distributed copies to their customers globally. The notice stated that there were counterfeits of Uchiya’s thermal protector in the market and requested them not to purchase or use the products in question. He also pondered upon filing the case to a local court in China. Considering the huge time and cost involved in legal proceedings, he gave up the idea of resorting to lawsuit. Instead, he brought the case to UL, who certified the original thermal protectors.

In China, UL inspectors visited the motor manufacturer who had ordered the imitation thermal protectors and the component manufacturer that had produced the imitation. The UL inspectors stressed that counterfeits would pose danger to consumers and cautioned that if counterfeits are continued to be produced, UL would withdraw all UL certifications to all products manufactured by that company.

“I also brought this issue to other certification bodies, but only UL stepped in to help solve the problem. I was so glad at UL’s action in contacting the factories, finding the imitation products and warning the factories,” said Uchiya.

“Losing UL certification will mean substantial loss to a manufacturer who exports products to the United States. We are very grateful that UL has exercised its authority to protect the interest of manufacturers who are responsible,” added Uchiya.

Even one counterfeit UL Mark is too many

UL has a zero tolerance policy for counterfeit goods and does not consent to the import, export, or manipulation of seized merchandise carrying a counterfeit UL Mark. The mission of UL’s anti-counterfeiting program is three-fold:

About 21 billion UL Marks appear on products entering the stream of commerce each year. Although counterfeit UL Marks have been detected on electrical products, this represents only a small fraction of all UL Marks used annually. However, even one counterfeit UL Mark is too many, given the safety concerns involved in the certification of electrical products.

For any suspect counterfeit case, you may report it online at https://www.ul.com/consumers/conproddb.cfm for our immediate attention.