Engadget: 1, Fake Engadget store: 0

Remember that fake Engadget store in Malaysia that stole our name and logo and then pretended they'd never heard of us when one of our readers dropped by and called them on it? Well, we have some good news: the bastards are out of business! Or at least they've stopped using our name! Not sure exactly what happened, but reader Kurt Low dropped by the Midvalley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur the other day and discovered that the "Engadget" store had been replaced by a new tech shop called "fixIT.com". (We thought that maybe they'd decided to rip off some other tech site, but a visit to fixit.com reveals only a placeholder for a site that doesn't exist yet.) Anyway, big ups to all our Malaysian readers for boycotting the "Engadget" store, looks like we won this round!

[Thanks, Kurt]

UPDATE: A couple of people wrote in to point out that if you compare this new photo with some of the older ones for the Engadget store it looks like it's the same business -- "Pusat Komputer" -- and that as we suspected all they've done is changed the name of their store. Which is definitely all we really wanted in the first place.

UPDATE 2: Argh, turns out that "Pusat Komputer" just means "computer store", so it doesn't necessarily mean that the people who own this new shop are the same people who opened the fake Engadget store. If anyone in Kuala Lumpur happens to visit the store, could you ask 'em what's up?

[Ismael @ May 20th 2007 11:38AM]

Owned please?

[strider_mt2k @ May 20th 2007 11:40AM]

It's now called The Gizmodo Store.

[Rohit Kapur @ May 20th 2007 11:44AM]

Oh come on, guys! It was sorta like an homage to you all! Imagine if they sold little figurines of all you there. . . ;-)

[Kamokazi @ May 20th 2007 2:22PM]

They might believe in voodoo over there...not sure if I would be keen on them selling little figurines of me...

[RandomThoughts @ May 20th 2007 11:46AM]

How many people here think its great that this store went out of business and supported a boycott while at the same time thinks nothing of downloading a song or movie or copying software? Its only bad if it happens to me? Is that how it works?

[Qin Zhi @ May 20th 2007 11:52AM]

Oh, what a great way to promote your own site. Is that how this works?

[Brian @ May 20th 2007 11:56AM]

"What's in a name?"

[eddy @ May 20th 2007 12:09PM]

I'm sure the lawyers at TW had nothing to do with this....

[OddManOut @ May 20th 2007 12:07PM]

"...thinks nothing of downloading a song or movie or copying software?"

Thats actually a good point. Nice reality/hypocrisy check. The one retort I might make is that engadget doesn't charge extortionary rates to view their site, or subject viewers to 40 minutes of commercials before they actually get to tech posts, nor do they ty to stop you from printing out any of their articles to share with someone who doesn't have a computer,or file for later review.

Does that make digital piracy right from a legal perspective ? No...should you be caught doing it the RIAA will still be more than happy to introduce you to Bubba and Sal, your bunkMATES during an all expense paid stay at the gray-bar hotel. Does this explain why people don't feel compunctions about ripping off an organization they feel nothing for because it rips THEM off, and cheer the demise of someone using the popularity of an organization they do care about to make money while giving nothing back.

So yeah, actually I'd have to say there probably is some "us and them" going on.

But consider this too, engadget didn't sue the people who blatantly ripped off their name. They let it go. And the store went out of business or changed it's name all by itself. Laughing about that or cheering for it seems more like laughing at someone who gets a virus that trashes their system while downloading pirated content. It's the risk you run and by now pretty much everyone knows that going into it, and often times the people laughing the loudest are other pirates.

People are funny...go fig....

[yellowhandman @ May 20th 2007 12:11PM]

guys, hate to disappoint you, but 'pusat' is a generic word in Malay for 'centre' or 'store'.

[shutterspeaks @ May 20th 2007 12:11PM]

they changed the name because they afraid of getting sued by apple. j

[Jag @ May 20th 2007 12:48PM]

Actually, "pusat komputer" means Computer Store.

Malaysian storefronts are generally required to state the kind of business they're doing, hence the sign.

[David Susilo @ May 20th 2007 5:08PM]

PUSAT KOMPUTER = COMPUTER CENTRE, not computer store

[Peter Rojas @ May 20th 2007 12:19PM]

In case it's not clear, we didn't take any legal action against these guys, and have had no contact with them whatsoever. I wasn't particularly happy about someone using our name and logo, especially since there was the potential for someone thinking that we had opened the store and/or were endorsing the products sold within, but we also recognized that it'd be pretty difficult to file a trademark suit against a business in Malaysia (and we also hate how everyone has gotten so trigger-happy with lawyer stuff lately).

Would we have tolerated an Engadget store in San Francisco? Almost definitely not -- in fact, because of US trademark law we'd almost definitely be obligated to take action -- but we also wanted to keep things in perspective and recognize that this little store wasn't necessarily doing us enough damage to warrant pursuing action in the Malaysian legal system.

[RandomThoughts @ May 20th 2007 12:59PM]

Peter, thanks, I hope it was not thought that my comments on copyright, patent infringement and software copying were directed at Engadget. I have respect for how you cover things and your response to the Apple email was top notch.

[Raymond @ May 20th 2007 5:23PM]

The flowers out front. It's pretty indicative of a new store opening owned by Asian people.

[Zim @ May 20th 2007 12:31PM]

Nice to read this :)

[blb @ May 20th 2007 10:09PM]

this is unfortunate news. i was waiting for ENGADGET to post "50% off everything in our store" coupons for its readers. I guess i'll have to wait for the next fake store.

[dave @ May 20th 2007 12:24PM]

The "Pusat Komputer" bit doesn't indicate anything.

It means "Computer Centre" according to my Malay-English dictionary.

[jay @ May 20th 2007 12:39PM]

I give you guys a lot of credit for not suing the crap out of this store, even though I think it would have been well within your rights to do so.

[colin @ May 20th 2007 12:49PM]

Has Engadget registered a trademark in that territory? Has it even registered one in the US (given that there's no (R) symbol in the logo, no obvious trademark claim on the site, and no logo registered with USPTO, just text by AOL). Has any infringement, fraud, libel occured? Does Malaysia recognise international copyright laws in the case of a copied logo at least?

[Qin Zhi @ May 20th 2007 3:40PM]

Your spamming, unfortunately, is NOT top-notch.

[michael @ May 20th 2007 1:08PM]

looks like they're doing good with their business (if they are stil under the same management). They have more stuffs at the store compared to the earlier picture.

I agree this is the same location as before from 'LOT 18' and now they have more neighbor (or let say competitor) in LOT 19 LOL

[Prof Kienstra @ May 20th 2007 1:12PM]

On the same note, i want to point you to the MillionRSS project, where they are scraping feeds to post to their website. You can see the link for yourself.

This is definitely not a good thing!!

[michael @ May 20th 2007 1:11PM]

oh.. one more thing.. maybe they are under new management coz I see bouquet (flowers) at the door....

[david ankers @ May 20th 2007 5:24PM]

I agree: flowers means newly opened so probably new ownership rather than new name + same owners.

[Prof Kienstra @ May 20th 2007 1:14PM]

The link seems to be not noted: http://www.millionrss.com/feed/Gadget-Blogs/Engadget-13866.html therefore once again.

[ryan10ad @ May 20th 2007 1:27PM]

I bet they got scared when they found out you guys are owned by AOL. I wouldn't fight with a supergiant, over a name (I think the store couldn't come up with a good name, so they relied on good old engadget)

[Ruhayat @ May 20th 2007 1:49PM]

Wow. I didn't even know Engadget has automatic trademarks all over the world. I guess this is how globalisation works?

[AJ @ May 20th 2007 2:30PM]

I was in Malaysia over the summer, and totally went there. The pulled off the Engadget thing quite nicely.

[TehWateva @ May 20th 2007 2:03PM]

Actually pusat komputer means Computer center

[Anonymous @ May 20th 2007 2:13PM]

Why do you even care? You guys are already rich from engadget - if anything that shop would've boosted hits to your site.

[crescentdavid @ May 20th 2007 2:18PM]

@ randomthoughts: it's spam, you know. And your site?
Blogger Template Style
Name: Rounders
Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL: www.censoredbyme.com
Date: 27 Feb 2004
Updated by: Blogger Team

Could you at least get a decent tempate? Try wordpress for god's sake ...

[RandomThoughts @ May 20th 2007 2:37PM]

Crescent, you got the URL wrong. Its Google, if it looked good, I wouldn't claim the design.

I actually read the articles, I sometimes click through for more info. Usually my comments bring up new points (like the one in this thread) or bring more to the table. Either that or I am trying to be funny. What exactly makes this spam?

[trainwrecka @ May 20th 2007 10:04PM]

spam? are you joking? he isn't advertising for some bank scheme or some sex site. he is adding his own comments - which is what everyone else is doing. he has a blog that he runs that users CAN click on if the CHOOSE to do so.

i have found PLENTY of new blogs on the internet that I would have NEVER found if people didn't add their sites to their comments. when i'm reading through the comments to a post I find interesting there are always links to people's blogs. if i find what the commenter said humorous or interesting i usually check out their blog.

so please STOP crying about spam. if you can't tell the difference between a link provided by a user and real spam you need help. on top of that - engadget knows how to stop TRUE spam - don't you think?

[David Susilo @ May 20th 2007 5:10PM]

PUSAT KOMPUTER = COMPUTER CENTRE, not computer store

[zek @ May 20th 2007 5:17PM]

In Malaysia, the "Pusat Komputer" tag (which means "Computer Centre", but more accurately in this context "Computer Store") just denotes the type of shop that is. The tag is put there by the developer of the shopping complex as a way to clearly define a certain store, and moreover help the customers who could instead of wondering what the heck an "Engadget Store" is know that it's just..a computer store.

[Ratchet the Lombax @ May 20th 2007 8:31PM]

Sorry I don't think the Engadget store even existed in the first place. I think it was just a photo shop job. Now someone finally posted a picture of the real store. Either way the place is all the way on the other side of the world and I have no interest in going there so it doesn't bother me either way.

[Grimas @ May 20th 2007 9:11PM]

The sign definately existed. I just moved to KL and saw the sign at MidValley Mall on the 3rd floor. I saw the sign a few weeks ago and thought "Hey, there's the store I saw in the photo..." Went back to the mall last week but didn't noticwe the sign but I wasn't really looking for it either...

[Gen @ May 21st 2007 1:22AM]

Well, it wouldnt have been such a big deal if they

1. admitted they are engadgets fan and just used it without permission, instead of denying of ever heard of engadget.
2. admitting they are fans and got engadget's consent before doing so.

anyway, I've been there, the "ignorant" staff whom denied bedifferent business, different owners.

[Gen @ May 20th 2007 8:58PM]

If the previous is displayed, sorry. clicked the enter button by accident.

Anyway, to conclude this, the store is a different one altogether. This is a typical PC hardware shop, the "engadget store" was purely focused on latest gadgets.

Apparently, this is what i heard (malaysians whom has heard another version, please share your views):

version 1. the staff is unaware of engadget because hes jst working there.

version 2. the bosses wants to start a specialised IT shop but has no idea for a catchy name, unaware of engadgets existance, their partner/staff suggested this cool name and logo(whom obviously is a reader)and thats where they got it.

[eddie @ May 20th 2007 9:15PM]

Pusat Komputer is computer center, but also mean computer store depending on context, the area of the Midavalley Mall that "the Engadget store" was in, is in fact a computer center, many computer stores there (theres an Apple store at the entrance.) So, for example when someone says "pusat komputer at Midavalley Megamall", that means the whole center and not just any one store.

There was really nothing particularly special about that fake store, even with the Engadget logo it didn't stand out.

Comparing photos, doesn't look like they sell the same stuff:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/10/a-visit-to-the-engadget-store/

Just for fun, the "Keluar" sign means "Exit"

[Grimas @ May 20th 2007 9:20PM]

The store definately exists. I was at MidValley mall and say the sign on the 3rd floor and thought "that's the store I saw on Engadget".

[rajulkabir @ May 21st 2007 2:33AM]

Hmmm. I was at Midvalley a few days ago and the Engadget shop still looked the same as it always does.

Is anyone actually sure this photo is of the correct shoplot? Way around back to the left in the computer shops, behind the Apple store.

I am far too lazy to go back out and check myself.

[kevler @ May 21st 2007 2:07AM]

i will visit this bastard owner store ...once i dropped by ..

i'm also shocked when engadget name attached on their store ..huhu

[yanG @ May 21st 2007 12:48AM]

Come to Malaysia for a visit!
it's 'Visit Malaysia 2007' its a tourism campaign from our government.
http://www.tourism.gov.my/
Youtube CLips
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=visit+malaysia+2007&search=Search

[vR @ May 21st 2007 2:39AM]

ACTUALLY, "Pusat Komputer" means "computer store" Ok, I feel better about myself now.

Oops, sorry, I just wanted to be the 20th person to point that out since I'm too lazy to actually browse the posts to notice that 19 other people said it. My bad.

[Job_Well_Done @ May 21st 2007 2:34AM]

Actually, the Fixit.com website has no real owner... someone should buy the site and sue this guys... just for FUN !

[Version 1.0 @ May 21st 2007 5:50AM]

About the flowers... Their not selling 'em... People usually just send flowers to congratulate the owner for opening the shop... Hence, the balloons too... Or atleast i think their balloons...

[Sookie @ May 21st 2007 6:39AM]

Whoooo. Malaysia Boleh!