SKF commences civil action over counterfeit bearings

Feb. 1, 2013 - PRLog -- SKF (http://www.skf.com/uk/index.html), the knowledge engineering company, has summoned Bearing International Holland to court for having sold SKF counterfeit products. The court action represents the latest in a series of moves by SKF to crack down on the sale of illegal merchandise in an effort to cut off the circulation of the counterfeit trade.

In November 2011, customs authorities in China seized counterfeit SKF bearings on their way to Bearing International Holland. Later, during a raid on a non-authorised distributor in Austria in June 2012, the authorities seized counterfeit SKF bearings that were bought from Bearing International Holland. At this point, SKF commenced a civil action against Bearing International Holland for infringing its intellectual property rights.

In July 2012, during a raid on Bearing International Holland, additional SKF counterfeit bearings were found. Immediately after the raid, SKF contacted Bearing International Holland, offering to dismiss the case under certain conditions. These conditions included an undertaking from Bearing International Holland to inform their customers that they may have taken delivery of counterfeit goods, and to compensate SKF for legal fees incurred in following up the case. Initially, Bearing International Holland expressed interest in cooperating, but despite several approaches by SKF this did not lead to any satisfactory agreement, resulting in the current court action.

Customers who suspect that they may have taken delivery of counterfeit SKF products are advised to contact SKF to verify their authenticity by sending photographs and a copy of the invoice togenuine@skf.com.

Trade of SKF counterfeit products in the marketplace is a serious threat to end users, since the failure of an inferior bearing in a crucial application can lead to a serious accident. In order to safeguard authenticity, SKF recommends that customers source SKF bearings through its Authorised Distributor network.

For further information, please contact: Phil Burge, Communication Manager, SKF (U.K.) Limited

T: +44 (0)1582 496433 (tel:%2B44%20%280%291582%20496433)   M: +44 (0)7770 647591 (tel:%2B44%20%280%297770%20647591)   phil.burge@skf.com

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SKF is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems, and services which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training. SKF is represented in more than 130 countries and has around 15,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2011 were SEK 66,216 million and the number of employees was 46,039. www.skf.com