Chinese supplier selling your branded overruns?
Identify the stock and save the listings before contacting the supplier. Preserve branding permissions and rejection records, separate UK infringement advice from safety action, and seek a written stock hold with verifiable follow-up. Do not assume you control goods held overseas. Coordinate factory checks through Cambridge China Bridge.
Identify what is being offered
Save dated screenshots, listing addresses, seller details, messages, product photographs and advertised delivery destinations. Ask for batch references, quantities, storage locations and dispatch records. Distinguish a listing using your photographs from evidence that the seller actually holds your goods. If appropriate, obtain a sample and retain its packaging and purchase record.
Separate authorised surplus, unapproved extra production, cosmetic rejects and safety-related rejects. Compare markings, packaging and distinctive features against your approved sample and inspection records. Keep supplier claims separate from verified findings. The production quantity guide helps establish what extra production you actually approved.
Preserve the permission and rejection trail
Keep purchase orders, artwork permissions, production limits, approved samples, inspection reports, rejection notices and correspondence in their original form. Identify who authorised branding, for which products and orders, and whether any resale or disposal permission was given. A permission to manufacture should be examined separately from any claimed permission to sell surplus.
Record why each affected batch was rejected, who made that decision and what disposition was agreed. Preserve evidence before rework, label removal or disposal changes the goods. For future orders, specify handling of branded rejects in the order documents; the branded merchandise guide covers print approval and seconds.
Assess the UK infringement question
UK government guidance describes use of another person's trade mark, patent, copyright or design without permission as intellectual property infringement. Give a UK IP adviser your rights records, manufacturing permissions, listings and evidence of UK offers or imports. Ask them to assess the actual goods and activity before calling all factory surplus counterfeit.
Ask the adviser whether any previous authorised sale and the market where it occurred affect your position. Have them review proposed infringement allegations, retailer demands and platform complaints before sending them. Keep this incident file separate from the preventive steps in protecting your IP, and avoid treating UK advice as proof that you control overseas stock.
Run a separate safety investigation
A rejected print and a failed safety test need different responses. Trace the defect to the affected batches, compare them with stock already supplied, and ask your compliance lead whether accepted production could share the problem. Hold relevant stock under your control while investigating. Removing a logo does not resolve a defective battery, unsafe material or missing safety evidence.
UK sellers must not sell consumer products they know, or should have known, are unsafe. Businesses must notify the relevant authority about products posing health and safety risks or relevant noncompliance. Ask your compliance adviser to establish the applicable notification route promptly. If affected goods have reached customers, use the UK recall guide to organise the response.
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Seek containment you can verify
Seek a documented agreement to hold identified stock, pause further offers and dispatches, preserve samples and disclose goods already transferred. Name the responsible supplier contact and agree a response date. Request an inventory that reconciles production, accepted deliveries, rejects, rework, disposals and remaining stock. Have your adviser review demands framed as IP enforcement.
Agree the disposition only after reviewing ownership, permissions and safety findings. Ask for witnessed checks, batch-linked photographs and disposal or rework records where appropriate. A removed listing does not prove stock was contained or destroyed. Cambridge China Bridge can coordinate checks with its own staff in China, subject to access; record inaccessible stock and unverified transfers as unresolved.
Frequently asked questions
Are branded factory overruns always counterfeit?
Do not assume so. Preserve manufacturing and resale permissions, identify the actual goods and ask a UK IP adviser to assess the rights, consent and sales history.
What evidence should I save before contacting the factory?
Save listings, seller messages, photographs and delivery destinations, alongside orders, artwork permissions, inspection reports and rejection notices. Keep originals and record when you collected them.
Can rejected goods be sold after removing my logo?
Do not approve this on branding grounds alone. Review the rejection reason, safety evidence, ownership and agreed disposition. Logo removal does not repair an unsafe product.
Does a deleted listing prove the supplier stopped selling?
No. Seek a reconciled inventory, dispatch records and evidence of the agreed stock hold or disposition. Record goods held elsewhere or already transferred as unresolved until verified.