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Beijing - Authorities in China's southwestern city of Kunming
have identified another 22 unauthorised Apple retailers weeks after a fake of
the company's store in the city sparked an international storm.
China's Administration for Industry and Commerce in the
Yunnan provincial capital said the stores have been ordered to stop using
Apple's logo after Apple China accused them of unfair competition and violating
its registered trademark, state media said on Thursday.
The market watchdog agency said it would set up a complaint
hotline and boost monitoring, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
It did not say if the shops were selling knock-off Apple
products or genuine but smuggled models.
Countless unauthorized resellers of Apple and other brands'
electronic products throughout China sell the real thing but buy their goods
overseas and smuggle them into the country to escape taxes.
In July, inspections of around 300 shops in Kunming were
carried out after a blog post by an American living in the city exposed a
near-flawless fake Apple Store where even the staff were convinced they were
working for the California-based iPhone and iPad maker.
Chinese law protects trademarks and prohibits companies from
copying the "look and feel" of other companies' stores.
But enforcement is spotty, and the United States and other
Western countries have often complained China is woefully behind in its effort
to stamp out intellectual property (IP) theft.
In May, China was listed for the seventh year by the US Trade Representative's office as a country with one of the worst records for preventing copyright theft.
