Consumer Electronics Devices
In 2006 the Japanese electronics company, NEC, concluded a two-year investigation of counterfeit keyboards and recordable CD and DVD disks sold in Beijing and Hong Kong. The company’s conclusion was startling: The counterfeiters had not only pirated NEC’s products and brand name, but they had contracted with an entire network of factories to produce the goods and set up warehouses and other businesses that used the NEC name. “The counterfeiters carried NEC business cards, commissioned product research and development in the company’s name and signed production and supply orders [...] they also required factories to pay royalties for ‘licensed’ products and issued official-looking warranty and service documents,” David Lague of The International Herald Tribune wrote in an article exposing the audacious counterfeit system. The pirates even went so far as to create some of their own goods that they sold under the NEC brand.
According to Lague, the counterfeiting of NEC operations was orchestrated in Taiwan and the goods were produced in factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The fake NEC products were sold in these areas, in Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
