Associated Press Carelessness Reaches Boiling Point

China Shutting Down Some (But Not All!) Fake Apple Stores...

from the and-they'll-pop-back-up... dept

Mon, Jul 25th 2011 2:20pm — Mike Masnick

With all the attention paid last week to the news of completely fake Apple stores popping up in China, you figured Chinese officials had to do something. Apparently, they started investigating, and shut down some of the fake Apple stores that were found in Kunming city. Perhaps most interesting, however, is that they let some of the stores stay open -- including the very story discovered by the BirdAbroad blog, which kicked off all of this attention. Apparently, officials found that that particular store "has a licence to trade and is selling genuine Apple products."

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Filed Under: apple stores, china, copycats

17 Comments

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Rachel @ Last Res0rt, 25 Jul 2011 @ 2:41pm

Apparently...
They found a way to counterfeit the genuine Apple products license too.

Who's surprised?
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william (profile), 25 Jul 2011 @ 2:58pm

Let me raise this curiosity if it haven't hit you yet.

The "fake" apple store got shut down because they don't have the proper business license, like if you run a store in your garage without registering/paying for a business license.

They didn't get shut down because they "copied" apple store.

Is it a copyrightable "expression" on how apple stores are set up?
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 4:31pm
  
  Re:
  If it is not, it should be. Freetards should not be able to steal hard working peoples ideas on how to set up a store.
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  - Jan Breens (profile), 25 Jul 2011 @ 5:01pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Explain to me, how do I steal one of your ideas. How do I take an idea from you, so that I have it, and you don't anymore...
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    - Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 5:08pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Sorry /sarc
      
      but to answer your question... Lobotomy might work
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Deck, 25 Jul 2011 @ 3:17pm

For theire defense, they never specified the boiling point of what. I'm sure some element boils at 100 F.
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- I-Blz, 25 Jul 2011 @ 4:41pm
  
  Re:
  Lol, wrong post
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 9:08pm
  
  Re:
  Excellent non-sequiturizing! xD
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 3:21pm

A clever ploy to get rid of the competition?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 3:31pm

Maybe some of these officials thought that it was more interesting to buy from those stores than from genuine ones ?
It can explain why some did not get closed.
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princefeliz (profile), 25 Jul 2011 @ 3:44pm

China Shutting Down Some (But Not All!) Fake Apple Stores...
what is apple complaining about? That's the price they have to pay for doing business with the biggest human rights violators in the planet. By the way, there are not factories workers they are slaves.
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Chuck (profile), 25 Jul 2011 @ 4:16pm

A matter of legality
They closed down the shops without a business license, they closed down the shops selling fake apple products. They let the store that was selling real apple products with a legal business license keep goin. What's wrong?
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 7:13pm
  
  Re: A matter of legality
  Nothing is wrong. This is business as usual in China. The store has the official green light.
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- Richard (profile), 26 Jul 2011 @ 2:11am
  
  Re: A matter of legality
  They let the store that was selling real apple products with a legal business license keep goin. What's wrong?
  
  No - it wasn't selling real apple products. It was "selling real apple products" - see the difference?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 5:09pm

Really....

"including the very story discovered by the BirdAbroad blog"

you mean store??
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2011 @ 6:38pm

Green Light
There you go. Get your valid "license to trade" and buy your Apple products from "ghost shifts" in factories, then you are golden. Away you go, complete with official blessing. Of course, a license might mean a few under-the-table payments to certain important local party officials. So be it. The factory has to be making genuine Apple products or be good enough to be convincing. That fake Apple store is no longer fake, it's official. Apple has no hope of winning any lawsuit against these guys.

Apple has now officially lost control over its dealer network in China. They can expect a vast collection of copycat stores. Apple's market share is now about to rocket up in China. If Apple intelligently plays its cards, that it has been dealt by China, Apple can still make a lot of money out of the new situation. This is going to be a real test for Apple management.
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Gene Cavanaugh (profile), 26 Jul 2011 @ 10:17am

China and Apple stores
Interesting that it is Kunming. That is in Yunnan, a province that until recently was the only one where Han Chinese were a minority.
One Chinese official told me "They don't even speak proper Chinese there" as he explained why Kunming and Yunnan don't really matter.
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