Counterfeits and look alikes

Tim Mallory is the VP of Marketing and Sales at First Texas Products (FTP). As most of us know, they make Bounty Hunter, Teknetics and Fisher detectors. In a thread about a Chinese knockoff detector someone started last week, Tim posted a sort of explanation/manifesto regarding the issue of fake detectors. The thread had pretty much run it's natural course, and I'm not sure how many folks read Tim's post.

I was posted a couple of things in the thread about the issue, I have worked in industries like Aerospace where the issue of counterfiet parts is a life and death business.

I thought it would be a good idea to start a new post, so, noticing that Tim had put his contact details in the post, I asked him if he would object if I re-posted his stuff. We had a good conversation on the subject of counterfeiting and it's effects and especially the issue of imitation vs counterfeiting and also talked about the issue of theft of intellectual property.

Tim's post is below. He made one very important point to me however. He asserts that the T2 counterfeit detectors which were manufactured in China and sold mainly in Africa, were truly counterfiets - that is they were carefully produced to appear to be GENUINE Teknetics T2's. This is clearly illegal - a form of theft.

That's pretty clear, but what about the GF2 and other detectors from the same sources which appeat externally to be T2’s - is this just a case of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

According to Tim, at least some of these detectors are running the actual software of the T2. This goes way beyond imitation and represents theft of FTP's intellectual property.

Here's Tim's post, from 25 May, under his Forum name of Mallot.

______________________________________________


Mallot
Re: High performing budget detector for under £200 !!
May 25, 2015 10:44PM Registered: 4 days ago
Posts: 1
6 or 7 years ago, the GPX was counterfeited.

Oh sure, they've come after Bounty Hunter for years with some cheapee knock Offs, but American sporting goods chains are very serious about the equipment they sell and sent them packing.

Since the Chinese like to sell their dubious copies in lots of one thousand, there are few detectors, other than Bounty Hunter, that meet that quantity of1000 in a single order. Since the gold rush in Africa, it hasn't been hard to sell in lots of 1000.

Not surprising then, the GPX 4500, was the first to get hit. The second to get counterfeited, in 2011, was the T2. The third, in 2013, was the Goldbug. The Ace 250 was unsuccessful in the gold market, but sold so many along the Pacific rim, that they copied it too, along with the pro pointer and now I understand they have counterfeited the Ace 350.

That's about all of the detectors that have been counterfeited.

Because Minelab, and First Texas came down on the counterfeiters hard: we raided their warehouses in Africa and the UAE, we arrested the top management of these outfits, we even had their passports seized. And we've hurt their business. Together with Minelab, we've confiscated several million dollars in counterfeit detectors and destroyed them. Several law suits are still pending. We are in process of a large raid, as I write this now. Just a few weeks ago, we successfully raided a warehouse of First Texas and Minelab counterfeit products. In fines and seized counterfeit goods, this will cost the copy criminals close to a million dollars.

Based on trademark infringement laws, we have taken very strong legal actions against the intellectual property pirates. We have run the detector counterfeiters out of business in Dubai.
As a result, the counterfeit organization decided to use these counterfeits as base models, and rename them. Afro Gold, Gold Finder, Gf2, are just a few of those names. Now, they are no longer breaking the law from a trademark standpoint.
BUT, they are breaking the law by stealing our patents.
So these products, named differently are still very illegal.
And we are not letting up.

Don't think for a minute the counterfeiters are a small business. They are the worst part of the Chinese mafia. There are several huge warehouses in Dubai selling various illegal counterfeits. Detectors are a very small part of it, although we estimate our losses at 10 million in sales to these crooks.

They enslave workers into midnight production in at least three factories in China. Enticed by financial reward, once a poor soul is made part of management in the counterfeit ring, they never escape. They threaten your family if you try - nasty people.

No Fisher or Teknetics product is made in China. Every part is sourced in the USA and built in the USA. But, we do purchase our electronic components from Texas Instruments and Mouser. And do they source capacitors and circuits from over seas? Yes, like most electronic companies, they do.

So the counterfeiters reverse engineer the products, but use different, cheaper, lower quality components, the sautering is not to spec. The tolerances and specifications are not at the same tight standards First Texas products employ. But the physical appearance, the box, the paint, the tones...seem all exact.

We cannot disclose the specifics of the counterfeit detectors and their weakness. If we did, they would fix those problems. Why help our enemies?

From a strictly product performance basis, here are the uflaws of the counterfeits.
1. They don't last. In Africa they fall apart in months.
2. Because they don't have our tolerances or follow any disciplined tuning of the machines, you don't know what you will get.
3. They simply are not as good. If they will lie about their name , why wouldn't they lie about their fake products performance. They do lie, they are lying.
They will spin out a good unit for tests or for marketing...but they don't do it consistently.
4. Any purchase made to a reputable metal detector company sees some percentage of the purchase going into innovation, deeper machines and better discrimination. Not so, the counterfeiters. You are instead supporting child labor, long hours and low wages.

We will have nothing to do with anyone selling counterfeits, by word or deed, by field report or wink and nod. We will prosecute counterfeiterst, and hound them and their friends anyway we can. It is illegal, immoral, and just flat wrong to promote such obvious and clear stolen intellectual property.

Tim Mallory
Vice President Sales and Marketing
First Texas Products
915 309 3783 C
915 633 8354 X 123

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Great post Rick, thanks for sharing!

Not to worry--the new Pacific Rim trade agreement will take care of this---yeah.

These type trade agreements typically greatly strengthen the ability of technology owners to combat Intellectual Property theft and product counterfeiting. Here are a couple of links for anyone who is interested in learning more about how this works.

[www.wto.org]

[trade.ec.europa.eu]

[www.ip-watch.org]

For the modern corporation (or any inventor, for that matter) Intellectual Property is a vital asset. Often worth more than all their factories and equipment.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

doc holiday Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not to worry--the new Pacific Rim trade agreement
> will take care of this---yeah.

yeah ........ we all cant wait for that deal to happen so corporations can sue countries

Counterfeits are in every aspect of life from A too Z, guess best can do is buy from established sellers, defitnitly not the wild wild west on Ebay.