Intellectual Property Rights: China Copycats

Have you read the latest Harry Potter story: “Harry Potter and Leopard Walk Up To Dragon”? Probably not, although the book is available in China! China copycat brands are everywhere. Businesses spend a huge amount of money protecting what is arguably their most valuable asset – the brand. However, China isn’t making it easy for such businesses…

An amusing way to introduce the importance of IPR is to show students some photos of the copycat brands widely available in China. Do any of these electronics brands seem rather familiar to you?

• China Unicom’s RedBerry
• Haff-Comm’s BlockBerry
• Lenovo and China Mobile’s OPhone
• SQNY
• Penesami

Sports shoes brands include
• Pmua
• Adidos
• Cnovesre
• I Vike (which looks like ‘Nike’)
• Like (which also reads like ‘Nike’)

And how about these retailers:
• Paradi
• KFG
• Pizza Huh
• Bucksstar Coffee
• ERSPTE

CBS News covers an interesting article on The World’s Greatest Fakes.

And here’s a great one to show your students (compare the BMW and BYD logos!):