Five bad Apples -- and look what's in store for IKEA ...

Recently this Kat wrote about a number fake Apple stores in Kunming in China. Since posting, Chinese officials have found five fake Apple stores in Kunming. However, only two of the five stores have been shut down. Somewhat surprisingly, the two stores were closed because they did not possess a business licence required for all commercial retail operations, not because they had infringed Apple's IP rights.

Apple has now taken matters into its own hands and filed a lawsuit for infringement of its trade marks in the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York against three companies and approximately 52 named and John Doe defendants. Exact details of the lawsuit are unknown at this stage because the documents are sealed to all except for legal counsel and the parties involved. However, CNET reports that Apple has filed a motion seeking a temporary restraining order as well as a preliminary injunction on the named defendants.

It would appear that Apple is not the only target in Kunming: last week, a number of outlets reported that Kunming also has a fake IKEA, a store is called '11 Furniture'. The first thing to note is that 11 Furniture's Chinese name 'Shi Yi Jia Ju' sounds very much like IKEA's Chinese name 'Yi Jia Jia Ju'. The second is that, inside, the look and feel of the store is virtually identical to expected in an authorised IKEA outlet. For instance, there is the similar blue-and-yellow colour scheme, signage, mock-up rooms, rocking chairs, miniature pencils and mininalist wooden tables in the cafeteria.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, IKEA stated:

Inter IKEA Systems B.V, the worldwide franchisor and owner of the IKEA Concept, sees it as very important to protect the intellectual property rights. We have reported it to Inter IKEA Systems B.V and they are dealing with this matter together with their legal counsel. The best thing we can do to prevent such stores from opening up in the future is to open more stores and make the IKEA products available to more people.

Chinese law prohibits firms from copying the 'look and feel' of other brands' stores. However, Chinese businesses frequently take advantage of problems in enforcing the law (such as low awards of damages and difficulty in enforcing judgments), unfortunately resulting in situations such as those with Apple and IKEA.

"I'm sure this wasn't the way in",
muttered Merpel ...

The IPKat, a simple soul, is wondering whether someone was teasing him about that US application filed by a Chinese inventor for a business method patent that related to a means of attracting goodwill by replicating a target company’s store fittings, trade dress and other indicia of reputation. Merpel is of course far too brave to confess to such thing as a phobia of entering an IKEA store, legitimate or otherwise, for fear that she is going to get stuck in the middle of a furniture maze and will have to scratch, scratch, scratch all the way out ...

The Ultimate Fake-Out: the Apple Stoer

This Kat has seen a number of genuine-looking counterfeit goods in her IP practice.  However, three Apple Stores in Kunming China appear to have taken faking it to a whole new level. Instead of just knocking off a convincing copy of the latest Apple gadget, blogger BirdAbroad has reported that some Chinese counterfeiters seem to have gone one step further and have actually replicated an entire Apple Store. The fake-out was so good that apparently some of the employees thought that they were working in genuine Apple Stores.

At a glance, according to BirdAbroad, the three stores in Kunming resembled a typical Apple Store. The employees wore blue t-shirts with official-looking Apple name badges around their necks. The goods were presented in the usual way so that customers had easy access to try them out. There was a winding staircase leading to an upstairs seating area.

On closer inspection by BirdAbroad, all was not as genuine as it seemed. One of the store signs reads ‘Apple Stoer’ instead of just bearing the Apple logo. The walls were not painted properly. The winding staircase was of poor quality.

According to the Apple website, there are only four official stores in China. All of these are located either in Beijing or Shanghai, not Kunming. Apple also has a network authorised sellers in China, including one seller in Kunming. However, this was not one of the three stores named by BirdAbroad.

Fortunately, the Chinese authorities and/or Apple have sprung into action. Chinese official news outlet Xinhua states:

"Kunming launches inspection on fake 'Apple Stores'

Industrial and commercial authorities in Kunming, capital city of southwestern Yunnan Province, on Friday started an inspection on all the city's electronics stores.

The inspection is carried out after three stores, self-named "Apple Stores" yet never authorized by the Apple Inc., were exposed via the Internet.

The inspection includes business licenses, authorized permits of brand use, and the purchase channel of each store, said a worker with the city's industrial and commercial department.

The inspection result will be announced to the public soon, the worker said.

The three alleged fake "Apple Stores" were discovered by a traveling blogger named BirdAbroad, who posted photos and challenged the stores' legitimate status and rights to use Apple's logo".

The IPKat thinks that there is never a more apt moment to remind readers of the Chinese word for fake or counterfeit: shanzhai (pronounced SHAN-JAI and previously mentioned on this blog here).

The ever-cautious Merpel is going to pay extra special attention next time she is in the Apple Store in Regent Street in London, just to be on the safe side ...