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."
Yeah I wonder why they would want to ruin a company who produces counterfeit products with the potential to kill someone by abusing a brand name they have no right to?
Mailing address in NY, but I would bet anything they're based in China.
All lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable, not just these. It's just that Shentech batteries are apparently more prone to spontaneous ignition than others.
Yeah, that and they're stamping IBM's name on them and selling them to customers who think they're getting genuine IBM replacement batteries.
Well, one could argue that the average user might not know of the dangers that "third party" products entail. And why should they entail such danger anyway? Why should anyone be allowed to sell a product that is known to have a higher chance of malfunctioning? I think something's wrong there.
Are you insane? $1Million is cheap, frankly, considering how incredibly damaging this could have been for IBM. With enough of these out there, IBM might have been facing a hundred different suits, half of them class-action, from all over the world. That says nothing for the positively massive loss of business they could potentially suffer as a result of a turn in public perception of their products. If just one of those batteries hit the laptop of, say, the CEO of a fortune 500, IBM could see millions in business go *poof* as fast at the battery burns.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
It's not greed. IBM doesn't want the money. They don't care who gets the money. You could burn it like leaves, right in front of them, and you couldn't get IBM legal to give less of a damn. Given their billing rates, you wouldn't WANT their legal team to put out a money fire. Cheaper to let it burn.
They don't want money. They want *blood*. This is "holy thunder of God Himself"-level wrath, possibly because this is the first *American* seller of counterfeits they've been able to get their yellowed claws on. That I've heard about, anyways. They're going to make an example out of him worst case, and best case they're going to make an example out of him and learn more about any US assets that can be linked to overseas counterfeiters.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
Hey, if people want to buy third-party components like batteries, more power to 'em. Manufacturers will usually fleece you for things like replacement batteries, but you're reasonably assured that they'll work correctly. You can often find reasonably-priced third-party batteries that have higher capacity or other advantages, but you give up the peace of mind you get with the "official" replacement. Still, as long as the chance of failure isn't negligently high (which in this specific case might be true), I don't really see a problem with it.
Now, printing IBM on the products is a different story, and takes the batteries from "third-party" to counterfeit. It's also possible that Shentech bought from a shoddy supplier that gave them counterfeits, but the end result is the same.
Bull. People like their coffee hot. McDonalds was simply serving the wants of their customers. If the local inspectors had a problem with the temperature, it should have been pursued as as code violation, not a civil lawsuit. "Legal" coffee is still hot enough to burn you up.
This is the poster child for a frivolous lawsuit!
The US Federal Courts will, I'm sure, be immensely sympathetic to the argument that they have no jurisdiction over Shentech, Inc. of 1513 132nd St., Flushing, NY 11356.
I would think the reason they're suing for $1M is so that it makes headlines, so that anyone who might otherwise be keen on suing IBM over their exploding batteries would then know who the real culprits are. They might get some settlement money, but it puts a big red "X" somewhere other than them (and rightly so), which will likely reduce the number of "mistaken" lawsuits they'll have to cope with. I heard once that the amount you seek in a lawsuit has less to do with actual damages, and more to do with how much noise you want to make. The more unreasonable the number, the more you're interested in screaming your point from the rooftops, rather than actually getting the money.
The world's only surviving livewriter.
Out of interest, how do you know that the one you bought off eBay wasn't a Shentech knock-off that someone was selling as a genuine IBM product?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
RTFA It says $1m per counterfeit mark per type of item sold.
So, if they counterfeited 2 logos on each of 3 types of batteris, IBM is asking for $6M.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
These batteries could open IBM up to litigation, or could have, had they not been discovered. IBM are protecting their name, reputation, and business.
After all, a lawsuit from a single exploding battery could easily cost IBM more than a million dollars...
$1M is cheap. $1M per battery sold is an attempt to kill the company outright.
Man I really wish I didn't use up all my mod points for hunting down trolls, because you have really elegantly pointed out the root of the problem.
Just to be fair, I wouldn't pinpoint this as an American capitalist problem only. It's in human nature. We are evolved gatherers through 6000 years of intelligent design. A better deal is a better deal, and the fine line where the better deal becomes unrealistic is subjective. So you bought a VCR recorder on the streets of (insert random name of a bustling city) for almost nothing, and you got a brick instead! So a new IBM battery costs $200. But you found one for only $29.99! Who do you ultimately blame? Me thinks the answer is x>1.
Sorry, the "coffee=hot" parable is still correct.
Not if the definition of "hot" that everyone assumes is nothing like how hot the liquid actually was. "Hot" is not binary.
You give hot liquids your full, undivided attention or you should NOT be handling them. If this means pulling the damn car over and walking in to get your caffiene fix DO IT!
I don't know anyone who actually treats coffee like that. Nobody treats coffee with their "full undivided attention", they walk around with un-covered cups all the time chatting with co-workers and what not and basically try not to run into anyone -- but even then they don't cautiously peer around every corner to make sure no one is coming. But based on what you are saying, the (pulling a number out of thin air) hundreds of thousands of people who drink coffee every day while commuting are knowingly putting themselves at risk of third degree burns and painful skin grafts.
Or, perhaps more plausibly, nobody actually considers a normal cup of coffee to be that serious of a threat, and everyone's "coffee==hot" equation does not apply for such high values of "hot".
Do you seriously walk around holding your coffee cup in two hands, blowing off anyone who attempts to engage you in conversation or otherwise distract your full attention from the danger in front of you? Or do you treat it like you would, say, a hammer, that would hurt like the dickens if you dropped it on your foot but you would hardly expect to hospitalize you? If the former, kudos to your caution, but you're completely abnormal.
There's also the "spilled it into clothing which holds it against your skin and continues to burn you" hot too. It's not like you get a peltier effect by dropping hot coffee on yourself.
Yes, that made the burns worse. What's your point, that she shouldn't have been wearing clothes? She still would have received third degree burns almost immediately. Maybe she would have only had to be in the hospital for four days instead of a week if she'd been wearing jeans instead of sweat pants. Maybe her genitals would have merely been badly scarred instead of requiring skin grafts.
Just about every coffee drinker has spilled coffee on themselves at some point. I don't know any who have been scarred as a result even if they spilled it on their pants, and I don't know anyone who was surprised that they were not seriously injured. A perhaps second degree burn requiring some aloe vera cream is about what any normal person expects.
The enemies of Democracy are
I agree it is not greed. IBM may not care about $1M, $20M or even $500M. It's about their label and name and their reputation. They You may think it is "holy thunder of God Himself", but the very bottom line is money. If not, then what is? You think IBM will defense US citizens from terrorists attack or something?
Frankly, the coffee should be brewed hot, but have a "cool down" period before being served.
Why? Because one person in every 24,000,000 can't handle it?
Was it a valid suit? yes.
I disagree. The plaintiff's case was based upon a key point: The coffee was too hot. The fact is, it was not. (I've posted detailed elsewhere in this thread.)
Because Mc D's acted like asshats and the jury saw it
Acting like an asshat is not illegal. Neither is preparing beverages in the proper manner. What should be illegal is suing other people for your own clumsy mistakes.
IBM will spend more money on this lawsuit than they get...
This is not about generic batteries, if Shentech sold "Ibm compatible" batteries
that melted and burned then Ibm would say "not our battery...not our problem". Plenty
of companies legitimately sell 3rd party ibm compatible batteries of reasonable quality.
Shentech was supposedly selling counterfeit batteries with ibm logos.
Its about
1) Protecting their public image
2) Protecting their trademark
3) Protecting customers who are trying to buy legitimate ibm sold/authorized products
Anyone comparing this to RIAA is a clueless moron.
IBM has spent 70 years developing a sqeaky clean reputation. Heck they even spent money
developing linux products. When ibm products malfunction because of ibms mistake they just
replace things free of charge.
They have enough problems with legitmate batteries made by sony
They deserve to put counterfeiters heads on pikes...these counterfeiters are potentially
injuring ibms customers.
I've always argued that if we're going to have corporate personhood and the death penalty, we should also have corporate death sentences. Do something nasty enough, and your corporation is dissolved, all chief officers imprisoned, holdings distributed, child corporations borked, etc. After all, if the real death penalty's purported deterrent effect is at all true, we should see some results. )
I don't think it would probably help here, as Shentech will probably just reappear in a different guise with same backers, but it'd be a nice threat against corporate malfeasance. Also, it's a handy story for appearing combative at cocktail parties.