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Fight Against Counterfeits Heats Up

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Electric Guitar Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition leads successful raids in China
Chicago, IL (January 12, 2009) -- Faced with increasing reports and complaints by musicians and music stores about the proliferation of counterfeit guitars bearing their brands, four of the best known names in the musical instrument business, Fender, Gretsch, Ibanez and Paul Reed Smith, joined forces in March 2008 to form the Electric Guitar Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (EGACC) in order to petition government authorities to enforce their intellectual property laws against counterfeiting.

Complaints were lodged with the PSB in Beijing regarding the activities of two Chinese companies operating as musoland.com.cn and paylessguitar.com.cn. The two companies were believed to be distributors engaged in the distribution and sale of counterfeit guitars through several websites targeting overseas consumers, and the four members of the EGACC had all received numerous complaints about the sites from both musical instrument retail stores and consumers, many of whom had been on the receiving end of acquiring instruments that turned out to be counterfeits.

The four guitar manufacturers working with the international intellectual-property and antitrust law firm, Baker and McKenzie, petitioned the Chinese enforcement authorities for law enforcement assistance. Following several months of intensive investigations, the Xuanwu District Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Beijing, China, launched simultaneous raids on November 26, 2008, against the warehouse and retail operations of both Musoland and Paylessguitar in Beijing.

During the operation, the PSB seized over 1200 counterfeit guitars and other musical instruments not only bearing all four EGACC group member brands but also those of several other famous electric guitar makers. A number of individuals including the owners of these businesses were detained by the PSB during the raids. The EGACC is cooperating with the PSB and prosecutors in their follow-up investigations and prosecution. Should the prosecutions prove successful, those convicted could face substantial fines and jail time.

A spokesperson for Baker & McKenzie, stated: “This is just the first of actions that will send a strong signal to manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and web sellers - that dealing in counterfeit guitars and counterfeit guitar products will simply not be tolerated by government authorities or the brand owners. Strong action will be taken to protect the group members’ lawful rights and the rights and interests of consumers of all of the affected brands. The EGACC group members are grateful for the cooperation of the PSB, and of other PRC enforcement authorities, including the Xuanwu Administration for Industry & Commerce, for pursuing these law enforcement actions. The EGACC group members look forward to working closely with these and other government enforcement authorities on this and future actions in the PRC and elsewhere.”

     

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Comments

 (10 comments) display by
UsernameComment
Andrew
on 10/12/2010 		Don't buy fake guitars. That's weak and wrong. Get a copy, not a fake.
cesar
on 10/10/2009 		Hey, I forgot mention that you can e-mail me at: cskelly@setarnet.aw I apreciate you advise.
Cesar
on 10/10/2009 		I need an advice> I want to purchase a gibson les paul through a chinese guitar manufacturer. Are these guitars good? Now, I want some honest opinion, of people who have done business with chinese guitar manufacturers.
c.blondin
on 03/15/2009 		I can understand Fender,Gretsch And to a lesser degree PRS,but Ibanez?They blatently ripped off everone in their so called copy period,which gave them a foothold in the American market.Mind you,I have several of these and think that at the time they were probably as good and often better at a fraction of the cost.Since that time they have produced fair to high quality BORING designs.I can understand bold face copies sporting someones brand, and That is wrong and should be stopped.If the counterfitters were smart,they would take the Ibanez route and build good quality copies with names like Inez,Fedner or even Glitch guitars.Who knows,maybe some day they may become good corporate citizens like Ibanez.
Ax
on 03/10/2009 		I love the guys bashing Gibson. Gibson isn't part of this group. Don't bash quality American made guitars just because you can't afford one. I smell sour grapes and envy. I have a 2007 Les Paul Standard and a Korean made Dillion. I like em' both just fine. At this point, you wouldn't buy a Gibson at any price because foreign guitars are better, so stuff a sock in it.
Todd Petty
on 02/18/2009 		For someone to think it's ok to steal someone's hard earned good name and to try to make a fast buck dishonestly, which gives the products a poor reputation, deserve any jail time they get. Not 2 picky must be one of them. Why play junk if you don't have to, or date undesirable women, or drive Chinese cars? Why NOT be somewhat discriminating? Enjoy McDonald's dude.
Not 2 Picky
on 01/30/2009 		Everyone thinks you have to buy American made.I know people who have bought from some of these knock off guitars as you put them,but who can afford something made in America, NOT ME!If Gibson didn't think their guitars were made of gold, then maybe someone could buy one.Until then I'll stick with my Japanese, Mexican, and China made quality guitars.The guitar sound is all in the fingers, learn to play and stop complaining you losers!
David in Ohio
on 01/12/2009 		I am very glad to see this being done, as it is wide spread and who knows how many people, shops, small factories and countries are involved, CNC machines can be purchased, parts bought from legitimate resellers and the companies themselves(?) then copied and put on eBay,other net sites that are just "shell companies" and who knows where else, and I agree with the above post unless you are educated about what look for you can easily be taken,only issue is so many other issues facing the US and the World (like Pirates off the coast of Somalia) But one counterfit guitar taken off the market is one less sold!
JasonG
on 01/12/2009 		Good its about time someone did something about that. Back in the 70's a lot of the copies were good, worth buying and were branded as copies. Today they are just flooding the guitar market with junk. An uneducated consumer could be easily be fooled and get ripped off with some of the crap that is out there. If your going to spend big bucks do your homework. There are enough creative people in china to come up with a quality product that would do well in the world market. We should not have to put up with it.
Dan Marois
on 01/12/2009 		About time!



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