Manufacturer fined $4,875 in ‘Chief’ label case

A manufacturer, who had been charged since 2005 with misrepresenting another company’s label as his, was fined $4,875 by Magistrate Brassington Reynolds at Cove and John Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, ending almost two years of court proceedings.

Magistrate Reynolds fined Abdool Saheed of 55 David Street, Subryanville and owner of A and R Packaging Limited located at La Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara over false representation of a patented article. Saheed allegedly misrepresented Chief Chinese sauce, a brand owned by Ricks & Sari, of Block A Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

According to court documents, between March 1 to 31 at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, Saheed made a false representation to Ramjewan Ramlochan that the Chinese sauce sold by him was the patented article ‘Chief’ manufactured by Ricks & Sari.

Saheed was discovered after the police received information that Saheed was putting another manufacturer’s labels on his products. The police subsequently went to his business and conducted a search, leading to Saheed’s arrest and charges later. Saheed reportedly manufactures food items under the brand ‘Best Way.’

Saheed also pleaded guilty to threatening Ricks & Sari Company Secretary Dianna Rodrigues on February 6 at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court and was yesterday also fined $4,125 for this.

Rodrigues, in an interview with Stabroek News, deemed the fine for misrepresenting the product as paltry. She said the substandard product sold by Saheed under the brand ‘Chief’ had caused Ricks & Sari significant damage. She said tests conducted on the Chinese sauce sold by Saheed under the ‘Chief’ brand showed that the product “was very, very bad” and the company saw decreased sales of its original Chinese sauce across the country, because customers complained of poor quality. She said that according to reports, Saheed sold the substandard Chinese sauce cheaper.

Stabroek News understands that the law under which Saheed was charged with misrepresentation stipulates a fine of $75, but an amendment called for the $75 to be multiplied by 65, hence the $4,875 fine.

Recently, Commercial Court Judge B S Roy ordered that an importer remove the trademark ‘Lux’ owned and registered by United Kingdom-based company Unilever PLC from over 1,000 cartons of soap imported from China falsely bearing the trademark. Local manufacturers have also filed court proceedings overseas for trademark breaches.