Well, it's pretty obvious that the Chinese will clone damn near anything, but when they engrave the original manufacturers logo on the item, that's just going way too far.
How they get away with it is beyond my comprehension.
I guess these little companies that manufacture the authentic items (like SvoëMesto Kayfun, etc) just don't have the money or lawyers to go after these Chinese companies ... And the Chinese communist government just don't seem to care either.
I can tell you that a big company like Coca Cola would sue these Chinese manufacturers in a heartbeat if they ever used there corporate logo on a non-authorized fake item!
It's beyond your comprehension because you are from a western culture.
Here are some articles which will explain that the idea of "Western" Intellectual Protection ideas were only introduced to China at the beginning of the 20th century, and even then it was introduced from "the outside" usually in the form of threats. 1000's of years of Chinese Philosophy and the Marxist ideas of "collective ownership" fly in the face of Western Ideals of protecting Intellectual Property.
Communism: Public Goods and Intellectual Property
Understanding Chinese Attitudes Towards Intellectual Property (IP) Rights - CIO.com
One could also argue that a company like SvoeMesto has actually 'thrived' due to chinese cloning. While this seems foreign to us, think about this. How many of you would have purchased a Kayfun at over $100.00 sight unseen? How many more Kayfuns and Kayfun Lites have been sold because the user first purchased a clone?
In this case, did the presence of a clone hurt or help SvoeMesto? If a customer who never would have purchased a Kayfun now purchases a Kayfun simply because a lower cost clone was available, then does not both companies win out?
And this is another aspect of Chinese culture. The fact that clones and knockoffs are viewed primarily as advertising for the real thing. It is assumed that a successful design will flourish as clones are available since more people will buy the original once they are satisfied that the "authentic one" will work based on the performance of the clone.
Of course the Chinese manufacturers are also aware of Western attitudes towards counterfeit or cloned items and they exploit that as well.
Consider "The Russian". It is nothing more than a Kayfun 3.1ES clone. However, unlike other clones, this one was built a little better and priced almost identically to the original Kayfun. The story was circulated that the person who manufactureed the Russian was a colleague of SvoeMesto. The two men parted ways and the ex-partner started manufacturing the Kayfun in China under the brand name the "Russian".
The story further "justifies" this action by inferring that the individual was a "co-owner" of the Kayfun design and thus was ethically justified to do this. This of course is a complete fabrication as there is nowhere that you can search on the internet to validate this story, but you see it repeated over and over again as truth.
This "fabrication" has garnered enough repetition on forums that now people actually see the Russian and The Russian 91% (Kayfun Lite Clone) as their own brands instead of the clones that they are.
A person who would never dream of owning a clone buys a R91. There are some people who are talking about how they only purchase a "real" R91 instead of a clone R91. So buying a clone of a clone is bad, but buying the clone is ok....
The "cloners" responsible for marketing "The Russian" must be giggling all the way to the bank....They cloned something and are charging in some cases MORE than the original....How does that happen???
