Major brands are increasingly being targeted by unscrupulous Chinese businesses seeking to profit from other companies’ brand reputation. Following the recent outing of several fake Apple Stores in Kunming, CTV have reported on other fake stores across China, ranging from furntiture outlets to coffee shops.
This kind of forgery damages brand reputation and value. The Chinese government and brand owners need to take steps to overcome this apparently increasing phenomenon.
According to the China Daily, analysts say that a third of local seed companies sell normal seeds, claiming that they are superior breeds or genetically modified. Such activity leaves farmers disappointed with poor crop yields and global biotechnology giants, like Monsanto and Pioneer, out of pocket from lost sales.
This is yet another example of the threat to brand protection that all sectors currently face. Brand owners need to think carefully about how they can protect their brand reputation and the perceived value of their product.
The Chinese embassy in Washington is apparently refusing to give visas to US officials wanting to visit China to investigate counterfeit electronic parts, as reported by the Lincoln Tribune. US Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has hinted at the Chinese embassy’s reluctance to grant US access without an official Chinese escort. The US wants to investigate Chinese electronics manufacturers after it emerged that the U.S. Defense Department has unwittingly purchased counterfeit components for use in various crucial systems, including missile defense and flight control computers.
Illustrating the scale of the counterfeiting problem in China, the country’s biggest online retailer, Taobao, has revealed that it removes around 20,000 suspected counterfeit product listings every day from its e-commerce website. As reported by Penn Olson, Taobao use various initiatives to identify counterfeit products on their website and have recently joined forces with 89 global brands to help reduce the instances of rogue products. Although 20,000 sounds like a lot of listings to remove, the website published over 10 million new product listings every day, making it extremely difficult to overcome the counterfeit goods problem. http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/03/21/taobao-counterfeit-products/
