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.

[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!

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.