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The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

China Builds and Sells Fake Yamaha Scooters

By Paul Crowe

Zhejiang Huatian, China’s largest scooter manufacturer, was fined $1.1 million for selling scooters under the Yamaha brand name.

The Chinese company, Zhejiang Huatian, registered a shell company in Japan’s remote Ishikawa prefecture in 2000 under the same three characters used by Yamaha to render its name in Chinese. This Japanese shell company then signed a licensing agreement with Zhejiang Huatian, allowing it to market its scooters in China under that name. Zhejiang Huatian went a step further by printing Yamaha’s name in English letters on its scooters.

One more example of the Chinese market playing fast and loose with the intellectual property of companies it is supposed to be doing legitimate business with. This seems to happen a lot and every time I hear of another company rushing to China, I expect this to happen again and again.

This wasn’t a little back alley operation trying to make a quick buck, Zhejiang Huatian is big.

It has sold its products, which include engine parts made under contract, in more than 20 countries, including the U.S., Germany, Italy, Iran and Vietnam, U.K. and Russia. In addition to the Yamaha brand, Zhejiang Huatian also markets scooters under the names Huatian, Jiaji and Feiling.

Aren’t there any rules over there, or rather, any rules they will not ignore?

Link: Forbes Magazine

Posted on June 13, 2007 Filed Under: China, Motorcycle Business


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Comments

  1. hoyt says

    June 13, 2007 at 9:13 am

    good questions. Don’t they also have stiffer penalties/fines for such crimes?

  2. Paul G. says

    June 13, 2007 at 1:08 pm

    Being in the injection molded part business. I know that if you let a Chinese maker build your mold you have to be very careful. Their labor is so inexpensive they can build two molds for the price of one. One for you and one for them. Then a few months later you see a cheap knock off of your product for sale that is identical to yours, and you paid for them to build it! I believe it has something to do with the communist mentality that everything belongs to everyone that still lingers there.

  3. Russell C. says

    June 13, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    I agree with Paul G. I work in composite plastics, and there is a mindset in China that is diametrically opposed to Western ideas.

    Furthermore, I think we- the consumers- should pay attention to our role in this. If we don’t reject rip off products, the Yamahas of the world have to spend time and resources fighting legal battles. Time and resources that could be drawn away from the wildly inefficient and expensive task of keeping Valentino Rossi and the M1 prototype running on the weekends. I doubt there is a solid ROI on the Yen spent on the MotoGP show, but Yamaha does it never the less. I love it and appreciate it, and I recognize that there are a hand-full of companies making my beloved spectacle possible. Yamaha is one of them.

    China: don’t be lazy! Design your own S#$%, and earn your own reputation. Taking Yamaha’s hard-earned reputation is stealing, and NOBODY likes a @#$%^ thief!

  4. Bryce says

    June 13, 2007 at 9:29 pm

    I would not do business in China for this very reason. Paul G’s example is so true, but it’s not limited to just that. Once any product goes to China, it’s going to be shared like nudie pictures are among teenage boys.

  5. Alex says

    June 13, 2007 at 10:26 pm

    I work in Japan. We produce industrial machinery. Last year, 18 new companies have opened in China, producing the very same machines.

    They copied the outlines from our leaflets and catalogs. For the interior they just use their Chinese crap.
    Our catalogs are usually just photocopied, address is changed with a sticker on top of ours. If they had a good day, they will modify colors a little bit.

    Lawsuts are useless waste of time and money, the outcome is usually nothing.

    Most western people talking about big business and industrial potential in China, IMHO forget that Hong Kong and China are not the same pair of shoes…

  6. Prester John says

    June 14, 2007 at 7:27 am

    I’ve seen a couple of internet postings over the last few years to the effect, “It’s the exact same scooter as the Yamaha. I was in the factory and saw them being built side-by-side.”

    Yeah, buddy, you probably didn’t see a REAL Yamaha being built. As others have said, designs belong to the people, comrade Kneeslider.

    Tom

  7. hoyt says

    June 15, 2007 at 10:48 am

    In case you ever run out of coolant for your Chinese motorcycle a tube should fit in your underseat toolkit…..

    BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese firm accused of manufacturing tainted toothpaste said it has stopped using a chemical found in antifreeze, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday amid a row about the safety of Chinese products.

    Shanghai White Cat Shareholding Co. Ltd, maker of “MAXAM” toothpaste, said in a statement the company stopped using diethylene glycol, or DEG, in all products on May 21.

    The statement said DEG, a thickening agent used in antifreeze, was commonly used in toothpaste.

    “Tests indicate that a low level of DEG does not threaten health,” the company was quoted as saying.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070615/hl_nm/china_health_toothpaste_dc

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