Michael Backman asks in his article for the Australian newspaper The Age the question who is liable for damage of a product of which it is unknown whether it is counterfeited or not. This could be increasingly the case, Backman claims, since the infringers are using better and better manufacturing methods.
On the other hand, the difference between real and fake probably cannot be bigger as between SEIMI and INSEAD. Backman gives the example of a blatant parasitical use of the attributes of the renowned French MBA: “[T]he Sino-European International Management Institute (SEIMI), which claims on its website (www.seiedu.org) to be based in Beijing and Fontainebleau, outside Paris. The French address happens to be that for INSEAD, a top European business school. SEIMI’s website provides names and photographs of faculty staff, most of whom are France-based INSEAD lecturers and professors.“
This affair is similar to the “cloning” of Steve Dickinson, co-blogger of Dan Harris of China Law Blog and colleague of Harris & Moure by a Mongolian law firm, see here.
Read Backman’s article here.
