ALIBABA'S COUNTERFEITS

We might be looking a little too close to Alibaba's counterfeits, and not looking at the broader issue of counterfeits being sold on the web.  Kathy Chu [Alibaba Revamps Fake-Goods Procedures, The Wall Street Journal, 11 November 2015]  shows how thin the changes are to the policies Alibaba has made:  " Under the new rules, global brands that have been highly accurate in flagging fake goods on Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao will have their complaints reviewed in one to three working days, compared with five to seven days previously. Brands that sign up for the program will also have a dedicated representative to deal with their complaints, according to the Chinese company. Alibaba hasn't disclosed how many brands have enrolled in its “good-faith takedown” program, which took effect April 1st."  We probably should not expect more from the world's largest counterfeiters of goods.  There is almost nothing the Chinese don't counterfeit, but Chu's example is insightful.

The Chinese also counterfeit their own goods, as illustrated by the example of counterfeit Huawai phones being sold on the Alibaba outlet.  I have mentioned other stories before about China's ability and willingness to counterfeit anything.  Chief among the reports was a 60 Minutes segment that outlined the counterfeiting of almost everything from wine to golf clubs.  It is part of their culture to counterfeit.  Copyright and trademark be damned.   Of course, when they start counterfeiting airplane parts and airbags (both were done) we are inclined to be more concerned, but still not very engaged with China.  

We don't do very much to discourage this kind of behavior.  As I mentioned in a prior post, Amazon continues to see a class of goods called "generic".  They don't want to know where they are manufactured and rely on a distributor to verify the authenticity.  This behavior is not much different than Alibaba.  Amazon does take these devices  back if you  don't approve of the, but avoiding them is a better plan

Counterfeit electronic  devices are not good things  to have in the U.S. infrastructure because goods in China are manufactured under different rules.  We can end up with source code that  has been tampered with by the Chinese government or surveillance equipment required  in China but not anywhere else, being included in the manufacturing process.  The thieves are blind to  this kind of thing.  We shouldn''t be.