Escrow Service and Counterfeit Goods

LOL, good one.

And impossible to enforce.

No one has said anything different.

coun·ter·feit /ˈkoun(t)ərˌfit/

adjective: counterfeit

made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud.

If you paint the Mona Lisa and sign your name it is not a counterfeit. If you sign Leonardo da Vinci's name, it is. The cited passages of the law require a likelihood "to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive".

I would like you on my jury. ;)

Even though I have no intend to defraud, the goods are made with the intent to defraud and so are counterfeit. The person I bought the goods from likely did not know they were counterfeit, that's why he wants them back, to return to his source and get his money back.

The point is once the goods are found to be counterfeit they should be destroyed, not returned so they can be sold as counterfeit again.

Whether what you did is a crime, rather

If you are sure they are fakes then mark them as such and return them with a note to that effect. You are rejecting defective product that an unscrupulous supplier sent to you as genuine parts. There is no intention to deceive here. Though US law may think otherwise.

I take it you have never actually been to the Far East?

In the good old days when it was a British colony you could be forgiven for thinking that the local greeting in Hong Kong was "Copy watch sir?". Likewise for various other high value trademarked luxury goods.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: =========================

** Several things are wrong with that idea.

1. An honest trader would not demand the counterfeits back - it is NOT the same as returning faulty items that need to be verified. What he needs to do is supply genuine items instead, ASAP.

1. What dishonest traders do, however, is treat the situation as an "unhappy" customer returning goods for restocking - then issue them a refund.

1. Being in possession of counterfeit items is very similar to having received stolen goods - you cannot legally return them to the thief.

** As with faulty items you can mark ( or deface ) them as such to prevent re-sale - either deliberate or accidental. FYI: The case I described here (100 fake MJ15003/4s) had an interesting outcome.

I managed to get a leading electronics magazine ( Electronics Australia) to publish a warning about such fakes, including pics I took of the insides. I knew the editor ( Jim Rowe) and he was happy to do so.

Soon as the issue appeared, Jim got an abusive phone call from one of his biggest advertisers ( Jaycar). Seems they had a also bought hundreds of the same fakes, but not from the same people I had. Jim explained the evidence the devices *were* fake was overwhelming and the caller then went "very quiet".

So, I found out who the actual importer was, that he was aware he was selling counterfeits but elected to make no recalls.

..... Phil

They might, if they were fooled by their wholesale supplier and wanted them as evidence to take action against their supplier. OTOH usually they would have more stock that probably would also be fake, in which case they might not need the parts returned, except perhaps to compare with the rest of their stock.

Chris Jones wrote: ================

** Correct.

In the cases I know of, the Australian importers had no way of returning the fake stock to anyone.

One large company ( Dick Smith Electronics) said to me they would take their thousands of fake MJ15003/4s off store sale but maybe put them in kits or "bargain bags" instead. Or any other clever way of passing them off that came to mind ....

..... Phil

It's not so much a matter of the vendor wanting evidence. He wants to return the product to the guy he bought them from. I can't say if honesty has anything to do with it, most likely he was only a middle man and didn't have inventory. His supplier will likely just make them available to someone else. Also, I'm wondering what he will hit me up for as I tested two chips. They aren't in the tape anymore, so might have to be re-refurbished.

Do they make sockets for TSSOP devices? I may need to test every reel I get and this is going to mess up a couple of boards at some point.

He only needs to return them if he purchased them knowing they were fakes.

yeah, the bottom line is returning the fakes is supporting counterfeiters. perhaps returning a sample so that your vender can verify them is justified.

check your purchase contract. I would try to avoid using an escrow service that it friendly to counterfeiters.

Prices seem to start around $35 (adafruit)