Fake Engadget store goes to China, gets downsized
No way, this ain't right. If you're going to bite our name and set up a brand new fake Engadget store in Guangdong, China, at least do it right and rent a whole freaking shop, ok? At this point you're really just embarrassing yourselves.
P.S. - Carl, we've already fired everyone involved with this fiasco.
P.S. - Carl, we've already fired everyone involved with this fiasco.

















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rainier @ Aug 20th 2007 1:58PM
Wow, talk about keeping it real fake!
joe @ Aug 20th 2007 1:58PM
Those damn COMMIES!!!
Jon @ Aug 20th 2007 2:10PM
China has not been communist for a very long time...
tehpwnmstr @ Aug 20th 2007 2:21PM
@ jon.
What have you been smoking? or do you get your news from north korea?
joe23521 @ Aug 20th 2007 2:34PM
The "Chinese Style Communism" is nothing but a name. If you've been to China lately, you'll notice that it's quite Capitalist actually.
Remember what Deng said, "A black cat or a white cat? As long as it eats mice, it's a good cat."
Miguel @ Aug 20th 2007 3:50PM
@joe
I'm pretty sure the cat in your failed metaphor is an economy, not a name. Chinese communism is just that: Chinese communism. The complete lack of copyright protection, the distributed workforce, caps on competition and regulated population to maintain some semblance of stability--not to mention a heavily policed press, slave labor and artificially deflated currency--adds up to something they called "Leninist" back in the day wrapped up in a little red book called "Maoism." They just got fancy new clothes for the twenty-first century. Same dude, different hat.
Emceay @ Aug 20th 2007 4:05PM
Oh don't forget the black vans that contain judge, jury, and executioner. Or the public executions that occur just before major holidays.
Brian @ Aug 20th 2007 4:54PM
Their governmment is bullshit, but the people / rulers were intelligent enough to make a free market economy...
Chris Macdonald @ Aug 20th 2007 6:01PM
Who's read Popular science recently? There's a whole 4 or 5 pages on the american-product-cloning in china...
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/e7e48a137b144110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
Ryan @ Aug 20th 2007 10:33PM
@Miguel
Have you actually ever been to China or did you get all that off wikipedia? I've been living in China for the past five years working at a market research firm in Beijing and I can tell you China is the furthest thing from being a communist country. It is one of the most ruthlessly capitalistic countries I have ever seen. Of course, that has lead to a host of many new problems that are detrimentally affecting this country as it tries to modernize.
DarkAardvark @ Aug 21st 2007 12:13AM
yeah, its a "mixed economy". its actually cooler than the US for entrepreneurs because it's MUCH easier to start a business. go to hong kong, it takes what, two weeks to start a business. in the US, it could take years.
i hate it how certain dumbasses always view the chinese as bad. mainly because hollywood puts out dumbass movies where the bad guys are ALWAYS chinese, italian, or russian. the chinese are allies folks. ALLIES!
joe23521 @ Aug 20th 2007 2:00PM
I wonder what's being sold under this brand...
Mandarin @ Aug 20th 2007 2:05PM
Why does it look like a perfume counter?
bl0nde @ Aug 20th 2007 3:09PM
Mmm...essence of fanboy, now with 33% extra vitriol!
tehpwnmstr @ Aug 20th 2007 2:07PM
I've been fired? Oh, crap. I guess its back to the pirate radio station and bootleg VHS tape out of the dufflebag on the corner.
fistpittingnork @ Aug 20th 2007 5:02PM
I'll take a copy of Ghoulies IV, please.
Samo @ Aug 20th 2007 2:25PM
Wow... Well, guys, take it like this: If two independant shops find it profitable to use your name brand illegally, then you guys must be doing something right. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't go over there and unload a can of whoop ass on them (or let Engadget China do it :p)
p.s. why is the photographer taking a photo so far away? Scared he might get caught?
rokerovakero @ Aug 20th 2007 2:26PM
I bet when someone wants to buy something there, they start tell how shitty it is and better wait for the next version, or wait for Apple to make one... lol
injate @ Aug 20th 2007 2:31PM
Are you insinuating that's what this web site does? That's wrong.
McGinley @ Aug 20th 2007 3:00PM
Wow,youre so freakin funny...thats really gracing the heights of witty repartee there.
rokerovakero @ Aug 20th 2007 3:58PM
lol! I'm in simple mode right now... I'll try funny next time...
John @ Aug 20th 2007 2:40PM
When does the engadget retail store open in SF? in LA?
ScooperDump @ Aug 20th 2007 2:51PM
exactly. About time (Warner) us loyal followers got exploited and were sold something under the engadget nameplates.
John @ Aug 20th 2007 2:59PM
I'd like an engadget can coozy please :)
doubleu606 @ Aug 20th 2007 2:49PM
*shrug* at least the font isn't the same
Dan @ Aug 20th 2007 2:52PM
Will it blend?
Sorry.
ps: Can it play Doom?
Penguin Warlord @ Aug 20th 2007 3:00PM
Goddamn it I was oging to ask if it could play doom!
But is it an iPhone?
captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ Aug 20th 2007 3:07PM
Does it broadcast in 1080p?
JC @ Aug 20th 2007 3:17PM
Whoop-de-freakin'-do. You guys don't really have an argument, unless they start bashing everything non-Apple and writing non-objective "news" items. Then you could make a real case for them copying Engadget.
rp @ Aug 20th 2007 3:21PM
Does it cause a bunch of people to post the same boring and played out joke comments over and over again expecting a laugh but instead receiving a low ranking?
If so, I for one welcome our crappy engadget rip off store with stupid comments overlords.. or something.
Dan @ Aug 21st 2007 5:47AM
Lighten up
cjh @ Aug 20th 2007 3:25PM
Hmm, I wonder if the same people are planning on opening a Gizmodo store.
ashwinmudigonda @ Aug 20th 2007 3:26PM
Me asks, "Why the photo quality so lame?" Chairperson Mao floating around? Come on China, get a Meizu and snap us some hi-res, IMAX quality shots
Magallanes @ Aug 20th 2007 4:36PM
looks like a undercover photo.
Steve @ Aug 20th 2007 3:59PM
That's just sad. Is there no originality any more?
Nate @ Aug 20th 2007 4:35PM
This is saddening. Can't anyone try to be original?
farfisa @ Aug 20th 2007 5:19PM
How do we know they weren't there first? It's a very old civilization.
Samo @ Aug 20th 2007 7:36PM
Judging by the way Engadget is going WTF in their blog, we can assume that the Engadget Blog came before the stall. But then again, it could be a ploy by the clever and sly bloggers here and making us *think* they were here first and... [insert more conspiracy stuff here]
@all the anti-China remarks: C'mon! You guys paint all us Chinese (I'm ethnically from HK, China, live in London, UK) with the same brush, it's not like there isn't blantent ripoffs in America (can't name any because i don't live there, but by Gawd, I bet there is), and guys trying to make a quick buck (hello, patent trolls, I'm looking at you). I never see any pro-china comments here, just anti ones:(
Eugene @ Aug 20th 2007 7:33PM
Ohhhh SNAP!
Careful you don't cut yourself with that razor sharp wit!
ander.esp @ Aug 20th 2007 8:00PM
if this is in China, why isnt the word Engadget translated into a Chinese dialect like the 50 signs next to it?
KC @ Aug 20th 2007 8:31PM
So what is the Fake Engadget store selling? Fake Apple stuff?
Henry @ Aug 20th 2007 9:22PM
Piracy has nothing to do with communism and it not only happens in China. People all over the world are using p2p software and downloading ilegal mp3 format songs.
Some guys are really funny here, when someone refers to china, the first thing they can think about is "oh, an evil communist country!", with an exaggerated, twisted face. but the truth is, it is raw capitalism. You can do anything there, the bottom line is to keep yourself away from politics.
engadget is one of my favourite gadget blog, however, this doesn't mean most people in china know about it, at least it's not as famous as SONY, SAMSUNG or pconline, a Chinese gadget website. The owner of that shop cannot get any profit from using this brand, i think he doesn't even know what he did.
Most of the counters like this are selling mp3 players, harddrivers and cables.
Casper Kao @ Aug 20th 2007 10:46PM
Bravo!
That's worst reason I've heard so far...
Any unauthorized claim of other's trademark, copyright...etc is a crime...
"The owner of that shop cannot get any profit from using this brand, i think he doesn't even know what he did."
Can I say BS?
No Excuse...plz...
周鹏 @ Aug 20th 2007 10:14PM
well,Why don't you consider that is a ad.for Engadget,the business man they want to attract yong people.China carries on U.S.A. of the early stage such as the same century initial stage of primitive capital accumulation now.I think some American always Ignorant and ill-informed about China and Asian.
Object to Henry ,Crowd who has consumption strength most is the yong people,they follow the trend closely,I don't belive they didn't know en~,especially in big city.
PS: I am Chinese live in Chengdu.the CCTV2 reported this bolg recently which is one of official stationof strongest influence power in China.
Casper Kao @ Aug 20th 2007 10:40PM
There's one thing called Trademark...
Johnny Appleseed @ Aug 20th 2007 11:09PM
Congradulations, once again. By my count, this is at least your third store you opened, Engadget. My only request, as a humble reader, is that you Open on of your superstores right here in the US so that I can get the deep discounts that the good people of Malaysia, and now China are getting.
Once again, Congrads! Keep em coming. Looking forward to your next grand opening.
shaojun_cheung @ Aug 20th 2007 11:32PM
well, if i was the owner, i would not use engadget to attract customers, first, engadget is not as famous as many other websites in China, if the owner wants to get more customers, why not use other brands? second, this is only a normal counter in a computer city, i don't think the stuff they sell has ever been introduced by engadget. that's why i think the owner is unconscious of what he is doing, this is what i wanna say.
i never denied it's a violation of trademark.
DarkAardvark @ Aug 21st 2007 12:17AM
im gonna start me a doom-playing, blending lemonade stand and call it Engadget. yes... YES! I AM A GENIUS!
ben @ Aug 21st 2007 2:02PM
Well, i don't think it is illegal in china to use names. I'm sure that engadget hasn't setup rights to the name over there.
Kamix @ Aug 21st 2007 3:02PM
Listen everyone, from just skimming through these comments, I can tell that a lot of you are anti-chinese. Just to tell you, (if you're from the states) your people does everything they can to stuff bad things about other countries in your brain and make your country look flawless. If I bashed the US like you guys are bashing my native country, China, you guys would probably make a big deal out of it. So please, just stop your *****ing and bashing.