FEBRUARY 2008
A practical guide to stopping the copiers
The supply of counterfeits from factories in China creates a big headache for brand owners. Mark Chernick outlines some unorthodox cures
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Mark Chernick has been manufacturing toys in China since 1985 and spends three months of every year working in the country. While some IP holders try to deal with fakes only once they have been made and distributed, Chernick tries to find the factories and target the producers. Here he outlines some techniques he has developed over the years. These include finding the source of the goods, varying the times when you launch new products, getting rid of spies placed in your factory by rivals, using the controversy over product safety in China to your advantage and publicizing your successes so that counterfeiters will come to the conclusion that copying your goods is just too much trouble. |
For those who design, mould and manufacture products in China, the threat of copies is always there. One rule in China that is rarely broken is that if you have a good product, it will be copied. Complexities in terms of ownership of factories, and the layers of agents, brokers and trading companies are so vast and confusing that even the most experienced foreigners operating within China can be easily fooled about the source of the copies.
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