In these modern times the world has become a very small place with the extensive use of the internet and nowhere to hide. Copy cats are being exposed world wide as they try to duplicate famous brand products and capitalize on other entrepreneurs hard work and blood, sweat and tears.
Much debate has been publicised over the years about fake products being sold over the Internet. Big brands have taken whatever action that was available to them to try to stop this illegal practise.
Unfortunately it is like a cancer and there is absolutely no cure. This problem cannot be ignored and affected companies are trying everything possible to try to reduce this deadly disease and millons of dollars are being spent to try and stamp out these practises.
Industry watch dogs are being formed as well as a special association established by various industries to try to combat these fraud practices world wide. Police forces and customs departments are involved in thousand of operations around the world. Fake goods are found daily and destroyed by government authorities. Cabinet Ministers from most countries meet on a regular basis to consult and work out ways to try to reduce these illegal activities .
These fake activities have been going on for decades especially in the movie industry, where they are known as “film pirates”. This problem has increased because of web sites offering free music and movies. Many sites have been closed by law courts all over the world to try to stamp out these rip-off companies
Leading newspapers around the world are also up in arms as their efforts on gathering content for their readers are being utilized by famous Internet content companies. There is much debate on this subject at present and content companies and news gatherers are at loggerheads as to the fairness of this practice. Newspapers argue that they do all the work, pay all the expenses and at the end of the day companies like Google rip off their content.
This brings us to another interesting subject of duplicated content practice which Google does not favor in the algorithm calculation. Is this not a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Google favour fresh original content and don't like copy cats.
The concept of copy is also a very interesting one as nobody is born with ideas and knowledge and everybody learns in life to copy their teachers,mentors, their parents and in reality everybody and everything is being copied from the original inventor or creator. There can only be one creator and we all copy and follow our creator of our understanding.
Getting back to famous brand rip of there has been lots of publicity on fake Apple stores popping up in China. These stores are fitted out to look identically the same as the land mark stores established by Apple in all major cities world wide.
First there were fake Chinese apple stores, now there are counterfeit like stores in the same city in Kunning in the south west corner of China. This area seems to be the world capital of knock off stores . Apple recently found five counterfeit versions of its stores as reported by Reuters.
The fake Ikea stores at least call themselves Furniture 11 and is 1000 mt of a four story building which is the exact replica of the Swedish brand stores. These new knock-off stores are established to look feel and service customers in the same way as the western concept stores, pirating the complete brand experience
American bloggers are exposing these fake stores on the Internet with the inclusion of full blown up pictures of these copy cats.
The problem with these rip off stores is that they not only look identical but they also trade in counterfeit products pushing unreliable cheap products, giving the original brands a bad name in the the market place.
In the fake Apple stores the staff wear the corporate Apple clothing creating the impression of an original Apple store.
Recent reports rumour that some of these store have been closed by the Chinese authorities.
This same problem has occurred with a South African window film company. This brand has been built over the last 40 years through blood sweat and tears and is a household name. Some years ago a company opened in Botswana and ripped off the “Klingshield” name and look and even uses the same type face in their logo!
This fraudulent act has upset the founder of Klingshield in South Africa and has put pressure on the unethical operator in Botswana to rename his window film business. The operator removed his web site off the internet but is still utilizing the name hoping not to be noticed by the originator of the brand.
Klingshield will never give in as it is unhappy that their brand name has been hijacked and at the end of the day every dog will have his day.