Slashdot Mirror
IBM Sues Company Selling Fake, Flammable Batteries
Bergkamp10 writes "A Computerworld article is reporting that IBM is suing Shentech for selling laptop batteries that catch on fire and sport allegedly fake IBM logos. IBM apparently followed up on a claim by a customer that an 'IBM' laptop battery bought at Shentech caught on fire and damaged his laptop. The customer reported the problem to Lenovo (who license Big Blue's trademark) who subsequently ordered 12 batteries from Shentech and found them all to be fakes. IBM is asking for US$1 million in damages for each dodgy battery sold."
They're in the US - it should be possible to track their warehouses and resources via shipping records. Let loose the Nazgul!
Given that the coffee lawsuit was totally justified (McD's had been cited by inspectors many times) for setting their coffee machines too hot--- by law, there's a max temp. 3rd degree burns should not occur without 30 seconds of exposure to the liquid; they had theirs set so that 3rd degree burns would occur in 3 seconds. So- despite your reference to a supposed "frivolous lawsuit", your post is actually more accurate than you believed--- both would be suits brought for good cause.
I ordered two Apple Powerbook AC adapters from them, which they were selling about $30 less than Apple list, a year or so ago; both died within a week. Shentech exchanged them - they refused to refund at first, depite my concerns that they had a bad lot - and the replacements died also. I asked for a refund this time, being pretty confident that any replacements they sent would be from the same production run, but they refused until I threatened to dispute the credit card charge with my bank. In retrospect I'm 99.9% confident that they were bogus, and this story seems to confirm my suspicions.
The punchline? I ordered the adapters from a different company and had the same problem. Getting a refund was easier this time, and I gave up and went to the Apple store. So much for trying to save a buck.
therefore there has to be a record somewhere of where their inventory is being shipped from. Even if it's overseas, the importer still has to be on record, with resources ripe for the picking.
Mod parent up, he's correct, and therefore not trolling (similar to the fact you can't be libelous if you speak in fact), in that the McDonald's coffee case is often incorrectly dragged out as an example of the need for tort reform:
http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
they had theirs set so that 3rd degree burns would occur in 3 seconds.
And as I like to point out whenever this topic comes up because a lot of people don't seem to realize, "3rd degree burns" means burns like these which can only be treated with these.
Now imagine that was on your crotch.
There's always somebody who says something like "LOL what an idiot, everyone knows you have to be careful with coffee because it's HOT!" Well everyone I've ever met must be an idiot, because I've never seen anyone treat coffee like it could do that to you in seconds. It'd be like seeing someone casually set a lit acetylene torch in their cup holder as they drove around. There's oops-ouchie hot, and there's skin-grafts-on-the-crotch way too fucking hot.
The enemies of Democracy are
Geez.
Yes, very good, the article does indeed indicate that IBM is seeking $1 Million in damages per battery. Something you need to understand about damages is that they do not necessarily mean that 'X' number of dollars were removed from your hands.
The overall potential damage to IBM of this infringement would be in the hundreds of millions, if not the billions both directly and indirectly for years to come. Asking for massive damages is not unreasonable under those circumstances.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
I call bullshit. Please cite where you got your information as well as back up all of your claims.
Here are lists of advantages and disadvantages of current Li-ion batteries. I have included citations.
Advantages:
* Lithium ion batteries, like all rechargeable batteries, are recyclable. (Greenbatteries.com)
* Li-ion has the highest power density compared to NiCd and Ni-MH batteries (QSL.net)
* Do not suffer from the "memory effect", unlike NiCd and Ni-MH (Wikipedia)
* Low self discharge rate of 5% per month (NiCd is 10%, Ni-MH is 30+ per month) (Wikipedia)
Disadvantages:
* Li-ion batteries are not as durable as nickel metal hydride or nickel-cadmium designs and can be extremely dangerous if mistreated (Wikipedia)
* Usually more expensive (Wikipedia
* Lithium-ion batteries also require sophisticated chargers that can carefully monitor the charge process. (Greenbatteries.com)
* Has more mandatory safety features than other battery types (Wikipedia)
* Reduced capacity at High discharge rates. (QSL.net)
* Li-ion batteries can be smaller or lighter than Ni-MH and NiCd (Greenbatteries.com)
* Are not available in AA, AAA, C or D sizes. (QSL.net)
* Approximately 1% of Li-ion batteries are the subject of recalls. (Wikipedia)
Citations:
(Greenbatteries.com) http://www.greenbatteries.com/libafa.html
(QSL.net) http://www.qsl.net/ac4fd/battery/Battery.html
(Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery
Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
Indeed. I bought something from Shentech about 5-6 years ago, and incurred a world of hurt. I bought a mouse--an Dell-branded Logitech USB mouse for about 6 bucks (great mouse, still going strong). Then over a year letter I discovered that someone had opened a commercial UPS account in my name and used it to ship wholesale quantities of goods from China to Shentech's address in Queens. I found this out when I received the bill. UPS was good about it and the bill went away...for a few months. Then another similar bill arrived at my new address (I'd moved from NYC to California). Again UPS's fraud squad dealt with it. I guess it was pretty obvious that someone who doesn't have a business wouldn't be shipping several thousand pounds of equipment across the Pacific. But they did something nasty with my contact info, and I've watched my credit reports carefully ever since.
So yeah, Shentech is evil.
.sig withheld by request