I spent 10 days in China recently, working on several exciting new product ideas for 2013 and 2014. Also visited two stages of the Canton Fair. The Lighting Halls were heavily populated with companies offering various versions of LED lightbulbs and tubes, and there were several 100 offering seemingly very similar products. It must be very difficult trying to work out who are the best companies to work with if you were just entering that category, and tough also for the factories to demonstrate why they should be selected as your supplier. Perhaps one clue is their attitude and demeanour on their stands, it amzes me how many almost ignore you when you stop and look, or just carry on eating their lunch. Now we all know how important lunch and dinner is in China, but having made the effort to exhibit at a major international trade show, shouldn’t having lunch come second to potential business? However many others were professional, eager and interesting to talk to.
On the solar side, there were many companies offering solar lights, and we clocked over 6 offering our own protected products for sale – one had 13 of our registered products on their stand, another, when confronted, ripped off our own logo and rating label in front of us, as if that somehow negated the ownership.
As a company we always take action to protect our IP when infringed, but sometimes it feels like pushing water uphill. As I often say to customers when they say they have seen similar products to our designs in other factories in China, the key question to ask is who actually designed the product in the first place, and where do the new product ideas usually come from? Ask our design team, they know!