The secret lives of Thailand's counterfeiters

[Bakseeda]

The strange thing is that none of those high quality counterfeits is produced in Thailand, but they all come from neighboring countries, merely because no Thai is able to produce something of quality.

Now would those countries produce those counterfeits for Thailand only? I doubt that.

Thailand produces many high quality products exported around the world. Cars and motorcycles come first to mind.

What prompts you to write such derogatory rubbish?

And Halloween, Don't forget the lovely Thai girls produced here in their hundreds....

[micmichd]

The strange thing is that none of those high quality counterfeits is produced in Thailand, but they all come from neighboring countries, merely because no Thai is able to produce something of quality.

Now would those countries produce those counterfeits for Thailand only? I doubt that.

Thailand produces many high quality products exported around the world. Cars and motorcycles come first to mind.

What prompts you to write such derogatory rubbish?

And Halloween, Don't forget the lovely Thai girls produced here in their hundreds....

The export of Thai girls to the West might soon be over when they run out of money there. It was never a good idea to think you can buy a Thai woman and then treat her as your private property.

[dominique355]

Not counterfeits, merely unauthorized copies. A counterfeit only has value if it fools someone into thinking it is the real thing. The purchasers of knock-off products like those listed do not believe they are genuine. Overwhelmingly, they are not people who would pony up to buy genuine if the copy were not available. Therefore, the holder of the trademark suffers no loss at all from the sale of unauthorized copies and it should not be illegal. Louis Vuitton once admitted that unauthorized copies do not result in lost sales for them.

Unfortunately this is an often heard argument, but equally unfortunate, it is plain wrong.

While it may be true that someone who just bought a knock-off with the Louis Vuitton trademark and design whould never have bought the genuine one, there are many more aspects to this than just a single sale.These counterfeits damage the reputation of the trademark owner to the point that many people would never buy a LV bag or even a Rolex watch anymore, because they look like they are wearing a copy. So there is real dammage to the trademark owners.

Further on it is considered as unfair competition to slavishly copy someone else's product and sell them for a profit.

And what about copies of pharmaceuticals or aircraft spare parts? Here it is downright dangerous and we certainly all agree that this must be stopped.

The fact of the matter is that trademark infringement is a crime and right so. It must be stopped and infringer must be punished. Gods must be conifscated and destroyed, even form private persons.

[dominique355]

I bought a replica Omega Seamaster watch a few years back which I took to a high end store in my home city to get the battery replaced. Now the watchmaker in this store must handle a lot of high end genuine watches yet he was unable to tell the difference and quoted me £65 to supply and fit a new battery. Needless to say I said no thanks and bought the tool and battery off the internet and replaced it myself. I also purchased a replica football shirt for a quarter of the price of a genuine shirt, It is better quality than the cheap original Puma ones that are sold in my local club store.

A lot of these companies have themselves to blame they are greedy, take Apple, they make huge profits on the back of Chinese slave labour and a loyal following of their brand. I myself have a Samsung Galaxy 3 which I bought second hand in Pattaya it does what I need it to do. I mean how many pixels does your phone camera need? I have also bought Lacoste copies in the past which I ended up giving away because I hate the feel of polyester. I own a lot of original Lacoste and can say that if the Thai copies were made out of cotton then I would still have them, since they looked good and were a fraction of the price of the real thing.

Its funny how companies make symbols of status and then moan that people who can't afford them want them. I would never buy a real Seamaster unless I won the lotto or landed a plumb job so I can only think the reason they don't want copies is because it diminishes the exclusiveness of their products which is not something I am going to lose sleep over anytime soon.

You might want to consider looking for another "high end" store. If they don't know that the Omega Seamaster is a mechanical watch and has no battery, I seriously doubt their competence.

[micmichd]

Not counterfeits, merely unauthorized copies. A counterfeit only has value if it fools someone into thinking it is the real thing. The purchasers of knock-off products like those listed do not believe they are genuine. Overwhelmingly, they are not people who would pony up to buy genuine if the copy were not available. Therefore, the holder of the trademark suffers no loss at all from the sale of unauthorized copies and it should not be illegal. Louis Vuitton once admitted that unauthorized copies do not result in lost sales for them.

Unfortunately this is an often heard argument, but equally unfortunate, it is plain wrong.

While it may be true that someone who just bought a knock-off with the Louis Vuitton trademark and design whould never have bought the genuine one, there are many more aspects to this than just a single sale.These counterfeits damage the reputation of the trademark owner to the point that many people would never buy a LV bag or even a Rolex watch anymore, because they look like they are wearing a copy. So there is real dammage to the trademark owners.

Further on it is considered as unfair competition to slavishly copy someone else's product and sell them for a profit.

And what about copies of pharmaceuticals or aircraft spare parts? Here it is downright dangerous and we certainly all agree that this must be stopped.

The fact of the matter is that trademark infringement is a crime and right so. It must be stopped and infringer must be punished. Gods must be conifscated and destroyed, even form private persons.

In the name of your Gods: who created Apple?

[CaptHaddock]

Not counterfeits, merely unauthorized copies. A counterfeit only has value if it fools someone into thinking it is the real thing. The purchasers of knock-off products like those listed do not believe they are genuine. Overwhelmingly, they are not people who would pony up to buy genuine if the copy were not available. Therefore, the holder of the trademark suffers no loss at all from the sale of unauthorized copies and it should not be illegal. Louis Vuitton once admitted that unauthorized copies do not result in lost sales for them.

Unfortunately this is an often heard argument, but equally unfortunate, it is plain wrong.

While it may be true that someone who just bought a knock-off with the Louis Vuitton trademark and design whould never have bought the genuine one, there are many more aspects to this than just a single sale.These counterfeits damage the reputation of the trademark owner to the point that many people would never buy a LV bag or even a Rolex watch anymore, because they look like they are wearing a copy. So there is real dammage to the trademark owners.

Further on it is considered as unfair competition to slavishly copy someone else's product and sell them for a profit.

And what about copies of pharmaceuticals or aircraft spare parts? Here it is downright dangerous and we certainly all agree that this must be stopped.

The fact of the matter is that trademark infringement is a crime and right so. It must be stopped and infringer must be punished. Gods must be conifscated and destroyed, even form private persons.

Quite the opposite is true. As we know, designs themselves cannot be patented or copyrighted. So, the fashion industry is and has long been without so-called "intellectual property" protection. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped the fashion industry from growing until in the US it is now larger than books, music, and movies combined, all of which do have copyright protection. However, the fashion manufacturers, like Louis Vuitton do have trademark protection. So, they abuse trademark protection by stamping their trademark all over their products enabling them to establish protection of their designes under trademark protection laws. This is a clear abuse of the trademark laws, which should be amended to exclude trademark protection when the trademark becomes a design element.

Intellectual property provisions are, by their nature, the granting of monopolies. Monopolies are subsidies granted, in this case, by governments at the expense of consumers. Companies love monopolies, but they are against the theory of capitalism since they restrain competition, which is the source of innovation. The term "intellectual property" is misleading and dishonest since it disguises the granting of monopolies as the mere recognition of property rights. Many industries that benefit the most from intellectual property provisions, like the drug industry, at notably lacking in innovation.

However, no one claims that producers of copies or anyone else should be entitled to sell unsafe products. Product safety is already addressed by product safety laws. Genuineness is no guarantee of safety in products as the many automobile manufacturer recalls attest.