http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/04/50-how-chinese-stole-yekutiel-shermans.html
Posted by Denny Hatch
How the Chinese Stole Yekutiel Sherman's
Invention Before It Was Even Funded!
• According to a 2017 report by the United States Trade Representative, Chinese theft of American Intellectual Property currently costs between $225 billion and $600 billion annually.
—Prof. Paul Goldstein, Stanford Law School
• Chinese counterfeiting now costs foreign firms an estimated $20 billion a year in lost profits. "In the case of one consumer goods manufacturer, as much as 70 percent of the goods on the markets are counterfeits," says professional fake buster Charles Scholz. He adds, "Anything from shampoo that might burn your head, batteries that only work for two days before they cut out, light bulbs that go out after two days."
A five-hour drive out of Shanghai is the city of Yiwu, which calls itself the "Capital of Small Commodities." This is where international buyers come to purchase knockoffs in bulk. Some 40,000 wholesale shops sell about 100,000 products that are up to 90 percent fake.
Just across the border from Hong Kong, the town of Shenzhen has become a Mecca for cheap knockoffs. With small cameras under wraps, ABCNews found an amazing variety and quantity of copies. Not only were there the latest DVDs, like Monsters, Inc. for $1 each, the latest software, like the newest version of PhotoShop and Windows, at one-tenth the cost, but just about every consumer product imaginable.
—Mark Litke, ABCNews
• The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies. The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple by compromising America's technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources.
—Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley, Bloomberg News
• Chinese Murder Thousands of U.S. Beloved Family Dogs
PETCO became the first national pet food store to halt the sale of Chinese-made treats this week, due to concerns over contamination—but it won't last. Already the rival retailer PetSmart has announced that it will follow suit in taking Chinese pet treats off store shelves. Over 1,000 dog deaths have been linked to problems with imported jerky treats, but this problem goes back years. The Food and Drug Administration has been investigating thousands of reports of pet illnesses linked to jerky treats going back to 2007, most of which involve Chinese products, though there's been a spike since last October.
—Bryan Walsh, TIME
• From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine
The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.
Many of them are children, poisoned at the hands of unsuspecting parents. The syrupy poison diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. It is also a killer.
—Walt Bogdanich and Jack Hooker, The New York Times
• Amazon's Counterfeit Problem
The company is facing multiple lawsuits from brands who say it does not do enough to prevent fakes from being listed on its website.
—Alana Samuels, The Atlantic
• Yekutiel Sherman's Brilliant Kickstarter Idea was on Sale in China Before He Had Even Finished Funding It
Yekutiel Sherman couldn't believe his eyes. The Israeli entrepreneur had spent one year designing the product that would make him rich—a smartphone case that unfolds into a selfie stick. He had drawn up prototypes, secured some minimal funds from his family and launched a crowdfunding campaign. He even shot a professional promo video, showing a couple taking a perfect selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.
But one week after his product hit Kickstarter in December 2015, Sherman was shocked to see it for sale on AliExpress—Alibaba's English-language wholesale site. Vendors across China were selling identical smartphone selfie-sticks, for as low as $10 a piece, well below Sherman's expected retail price of £39 ($47.41). Amazingly some of these vendors stole the name of Sherman's product—Stikbox.
—Josh Horwitz, QUARTZ, qz.com
• Amazon's Counterfeit Problem
The company is facing multiple lawsuits from brands who say it does not do enough to prevent fakes from being listed on its website.
—Alana Samuels, The Atlantic
• Yekutiel Sherman's Brilliant Kickstarter Idea was on Sale in China Before He Had Even Finished Funding It
Yekutiel Sherman couldn't believe his eyes. The Israeli entrepreneur had spent one year designing the product that would make him rich—a smartphone case that unfolds into a selfie stick. He had drawn up prototypes, secured some minimal funds from his family and launched a crowdfunding campaign. He even shot a professional promo video, showing a couple taking a perfect selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.
—Josh Horwitz, QUARTZ, qz.com
Takeaways to Consider
•If you contract with a manufacturer in China to produce your proprietary product, expect a duplicate production line across town pumping out your product and selling it all over the world at a fraction of your MSRP. And don't be surprised to see it at discount stores all across the U.S. as well as on eBay and Amazon.
• If you go the CrowdFunding route you can expect your product to be on sale worldwide before you have your money.
• The only sure, safe way to test the marketability of a new product or service is by direct mail.
• Unless you are an expert in offers, pricing, copy, design, U.S. Postal Service regulations, lists and list rental, hire a professional.
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Word Count: 774
At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly
apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To
his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was
instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60),
Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five
of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his
businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service
founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of
competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club
director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor,
journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels
and seven books on business and marketing.
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