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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."
Ouch. What a large amount of money. I wonder why they're suing for so much? Probably trying to defend their name. Guess that's what you get for messing with Big Blue. . .
They're in the US - it should be possible to track their warehouses and resources via shipping records. Let loose the Nazgul!
Shentech's slogan: They're the hottest product on the market!
01110000 01010111 01101110 00110011 01100100
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.
John
The store mentioned in TFA looks pretty shady to begin with, with products like "iPod Nano Alike" and such [Quote from site; "Why pay more for iPod Nano where you can get this better funtioned MP3 player for just 1/5 of the price?"].
Usually it's a question whether the consumers should wise up, or whether cheap knockoffs should be removed due to copyright infringement. But in this case where one company is blatantly putting another company's label on their inferior product, that's undoubtedly when the law needs to fix things.
It's good that Big blue is doing something to stop this, but part of me doesn't have much sympathy for someone who would order parts from a site like that.
Damnit, I want the genuine sony flammable batteries!
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.
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.
If fake Apple products catch fire, it is the just wrath of the almighty Jobs sending a message to the nonbelievers. If your knockoff power adapters simply died without incident, I'd say you got off easy.
I was shopping for a new battery for my T43 last month and ran across Shentech through Pricegrabber. Their price really stood out versus reputable sites like newegg. I can say that in the late October timeframe they were in fact advertising them as "Genuine IBM/Lenovo" OEM batteries. I almost bit, but my "this is too good to be true" alarm stopped me. I ended up buying an OEM battery off of ebay.
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.
When they put an IBM logo on something without actual IBM endorsement.
I notice a very poor and typically Eastern usage of our language. Even though the only supposed locale for this place is in NY, I wouldn't put it past the place to be a Chinese-run hackshop, given the company name and the grammar on the website. Shentech? C'mon now, the name alone raised red flags.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Shentech is doing business in a location called "Flushing, NY". I'm not sure where that is in China, but I'm sure that Lenovo, headquartered in Beijing, might be able to find them.
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
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.
First off the company is based in New York, USA not China. Sure they may have suppliers in China, but most major companies do. Next, the company was selling defective batteries and as previous posters have noted, they sold defective AC adapters too. For trademark and copyright infringement, think of it this way, theres nothing wrong with me making a website, theres nothing wrong with me putting ads on website nor is there anything wrong with making a search engine. However, if I get say gooogle.com, make it look like Google and put spyware and adware all over it and record people's searches, that is bad. As for quality people thought they were getting an true IBM battery they didn't think they were getting a battery that would explode, there are places all over the web that buy things in bulk or have deals with OEMs and can sell technology and computers for cheap, I am sure that 99% of the people thought this company was doing the same, when they got it, it had the IBM logo on it so they thought like most of us do IBM logo == IBM. That is what IBM is suing for, the fact that they mislead customers that they were getting an IBM battery, not some Explode-O brand battery.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
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
Geez.
If this submission be right, McDonald's should not have served drinks at any temperature which would have caused a bad scalding injury. The evidence is that tea or coffee served at a temperature of 65 C (149 F) will cause a deep thickness burn if it is in contact with the skin for just two seconds. Thus, if McDonald's were going to avoid the risk of injury by a deep thickness burn they would have had to have served tea and coffee at between 55-60 C (131-140 F). But tea ought to be brewed with boiling water if it is to give its best flavour and coffee ought to be brewed at between 85-95 C (185-203 F).[10]
Though defenders of the Liebeck verdict argue that her coffee was unusually hotter than other coffee sold, other major vendors of coffee, including Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, and Burger King, produce coffee at a similar or higher temperature, and have been subjected to similar lawsuits over third-degree burns.[13] And moreover, it seems to me that the coffee had the right temperature (more so, considering that it was served at a drive thru which means people will indeed drink the coffee while driving over long distances): Home and commercial coffee makers often reach comparable temperatures.[14] The National Coffee Association instructs that coffee be brewed "between 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit [91-96 C] for optimal extraction" and consumed "immediately". If not consumed immediately, the coffee is to be "maintained at 180-185 degrees Fahrenheit." [15] I have always thought that such a suit is only possible in the happy suing USA.
Now, returning to the IBM case (and this main story subject), I really hope they sue these bastards as they are counterfeiting merchandise. This is a company trying to profit from a registered trademark (or name?) selling terrible products. IMHO these are the real pirates who should be punished with all the extent of the law
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
They also sell used and refurbished items as new. I ordered an ipod USB cable from them because the price was much cheaper than the competition. It worked, but it had grime and hair all over it. I emailed them to complain, and they sent me a replacement without hesitation. Practically an admission of guilt...it seemed.
What possible international law enforcement agency would enforce a ban on work-alike/look-alike products?
WIPO.
Who would you have enforce the copyrights and trademarks of IBM?
The Department of Justice.
do you think that US Customs should be the filter and prevent such purchases from entering the US?
Check this out.
And if you bought something like this on the Internet and it was confiscated, should the customer just lose their money?
Pretty much.
Dear Sir / Madam:
...^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
I'm writing to inform you of a fire which has broken out on the premises of
FIRE! FIRE! HELP ME! 123 Callington Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss
Slashdotter, ID #101. UIDs are in binary, right?
As others have pointed out the company is US based. Others also pointed out that the IBM legal team is going to find out who they are ordering from and pass that information on Lenovo. Lenovo being a premier Chinese company with extensive government contacts will likely take action within the political/judicial system in China. It should also be noted that they execute executives and company chairman for behavior that damages the reputation of China. For instance the chairman that put all that melamine in dog food that ended up killing all those pets was sentenced to death and has likely already been executed. So if you think this is no big deal, think again. The American company will be utterly destroyed by IBM and the suppliers of these counterfeit batteries are likely going to face the justice system in China (not because of IBM, but because of Lenovo who has exclusive rights to the IBM name).
...will it break my spine and ribs?
I absolutely love their ironic tagline... "Shentech - Get Your Money's worth!
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.
The general consensus among coffee aficionados is that the proper brewing temperature is about 200 F (Source, also Wikipedia). This was also the conclusion of another judgement in another lawsuit against Bunn-o-Matic on the same grounds (which was thrown out.)
Juicy tidbit from that link:
(Emphasis added)
Yes, coffee served that hot will do serious damage to human flesh in a short period of time. So will all sorts of properly prepared foods if consumed immediately after cooking.
Yes, many establishments and home brewers deliver tepid coffee. This is sad, but it does not make McDonalds a villain for serving properly prepared coffee (or, at least, coffee that's closer to properly prepared than other places.)
Yes, there are a lot of dipwads that complain to McDonalds after they've burned themselves by spilling coffee or drinking it too soon. McDonalds is not responsible for their idiocy.
In my opinion, the McDonalds case says very little about torts and tort reform, but quite a bit about our legal system in general.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
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
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
"Liquid that hot mixed with the styrofoam/paper cup and plastic lid made for a disaster waiting to happen. The coffee cup and its lid quite literally began to melt and disintegrate under the heat."
Polystyrene melts at 240C, which is well over twice the boiling point of water at sea level, so your claim is an excellent example of the phenomenon of rectal vocalisation.
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.