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Court Reporter
Two Indians who operate a hardware shop in Harare appeared in court last week facing charges of contravening the Trademarks Act by selling counterfeited, substandard locksets with a Chubb Locks Union of Zimbabwe logo.
The owners of Lucky Electrical Hardware in Harare Street were selling locksets branded as Union and Yale, which are manufactured by Chubb Locks. Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei remanded Salim Patel (38) and Anwar Ismail Haveliwala (43) out of custody to May 8.
Chubb Locks Union of Zimbabwe was represented by its finance director, Clive Majoni.
The court heard that Chubb Locks is the only manufacturer and trader of Union and Locks locksets worldwide.
On April 2, Chubb Locks sales representative Bishop Nyaruwata came across imitations of Union and Yale brands being sold by Patel and Haveliwala.
Nyaruwata bought some of the locks and discovered that they had Chubb Locks codes and logos, although they were substandard, the court heard.
It is alleged that the counterfeit locksets were made of weak raw material and were of substandard weight.
On April 11, Nyaruwata went to hardware Lucky Electrical Hardware and and bought 20 Union and 30 Yale locksets valued at $225 and $240 respectively.
Chubb Locks took these to the police leading to the arrest of Patel and Haveliwala. Police recovered 430 boxes containing 30 units of counterfeit.
Online Reporter