Zoo Station

(Via Bernhard) This story is so outrageous it's really funny. Of course, by now we all know that China is ground zero for pirating/faking everything from the newest Hollywood movies to Coach handbags. Now comes this wonderful story from the Intl Herald Tribune about pirates who have managed to scale their operations to an entirely different level by faking an entire company, in this case NEC, the Japanese electronics major.

Evidence seized in raids on 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan over the past year showed that the counterfeiters had set up what amounted to a parallel NEC brand with links to a network of more than 50 electronics factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the name of NEC, the pirates copied NEC products, and went as far as developing their own range of consumer electronic products - everything from home entertainment centers to MP3 players. They also coordinated manufacturing and distribution, collecting all the proceeds. The Japanese company even received complaints about products - which were of generally good quality - that they did not make or provide with warranties.
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Steve Vickers, president of International Risk, a Hong Kong-based company that NEC hired to investigate the piracy, said documents and computer records seized by the police during the factory and warehouse raids had revealed the scope of the piracy.
These records showed that the counterfeiters carried NEC business cards, commissioned product research and development in the company's name and signed production and supply orders. He said they also required factories to pay royalties for "licensed" products and issued official-looking warranty and service documents.
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NEC said about 50 products were counterfeited, including home entertainment systems, MP3 players, batteries, microphones and DVD players. Many of these pirated items were not part of the genuine NEC product range.