By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

Chinese imitations of Samsung mobile phones.
Korean electronics makers agreed to join forces to cope with the increasing number of Chinese imitations of their products but, for practical reasons, their efforts are looking like hollow gestures.
The Electronics Industries Association of Korea (EIAK) said that its member companies held a meeting last week and they decided to form a committee to monitor the production and sale of Chinese counterfeits, such as mobile phones, MP3 players, set-top boxes, microwaves and even semiconductor chips.

The association, which is headed by Samsung Electronics’ vice president Yun Jong-yong, also said that it will hold a series of exhibitions that compares the originals and the imitations around major Chinese cities. However, the association admitted that it has no further plans to fight the imitators at the moment, due to issues regarding the Chinese police, as well as the firms’ own interests.

``The Chinese police are reluctant in coping with the counterfeits,’’ said Kim Dae-sung of the EIAK’s. ``Also, the companies involved in the discussion are very cautious in making this matter public. It seems that the companies do not want to complain a lot to protect their brand images.’’

According to a report from Marksman Consultants this summer, two-thirds of electronics shops in four major Chinese cities _ Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen _ have fake Samsung and LG Electronics products on their shelves, with most of them labeled as the originals.

Some Chinese companies are even coming up with names and logos nearly identical to those of Korean brands, such as Samesong, Samsong or Samsumg to make the customers confuse their name with Samsung Electronics.

Even if the Korean firms find out the imitations are being sold in the market, there is no effective way to prevent such damages to the firms.

``It is practically impossible to track down the Chinese counterfeits, because it takes them less than a month to copy our products while it takes eight months for us on average to develop a new product,’’ said Chung Kook-hyun, chief of Samsung Electronics’ design center, while recently meeting reporters at the company’s headquarters in Seoul. ``Sometimes I wonder whether the Chinese makers are stealing our product molds, because without the same molds it’s almost impossible to copy the products in such a short period of time.’’

The EIAK also admits such difficulties.

``We have been monitoring the situation already, and we will conduct further research soon. But as of now, there is only a general consensus between the firms that the situation is bad,’’ said Kim of the association.

Samsung’s Chung suggests that the Korean manufacturers should rather improve the quality of their products than try to fight against the fake products in vain.

``Our company plans to sell more high-end, tech-oriented products in China, so the counterfeiters cannot imitate them easily. We think that we cannot compete with them on cheap products any more,’’ he said.

According to the EIAK, the fake electronics are mostly produced in the industrial region in southeastern China surrounding Shenzhen, and they are widely sold in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. There also are worldwide distribution routes to Europe, Japan, South East Asia, and they are even sold in South Korea in online shopping malls.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr