Thread: ABC Landline Upcoming Story on Lucas Mills 18 Sep 2016

Article on ABC News

Lucas Mills: Family's fight to stop Chinese copies of sawmill in cutting-edge case - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The family managed to win a $430,000 compensation from the Chinese counterfeiters but it got halved on appeal and barely covered the Lucas family's costs.

Makes me just as angry to think there are people out there buying these counterfeit mills. I'd say most of the buyers must know theyre counterfeit.

It is even worse when these Chinese copies are instigated by an Australian company.

Well known Australia wide hardware chain asked Chinese company to manufacture an exact copy of children's play equipment that was manufactured by an iconic Adelaide manufacturer then told the iconic Adelaide manufacturer their product were no longer required.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

It is even worse when these Chinese copies are instigated by an Australian company.

Well known Australia wide hardware chain asked Chinese company to manufacture an exact copy of children's play equipment that was manufactured by an iconic Adelaide manufacturer then told the iconic Adelaide manufacturer their product were no longer required.

Very un-Australian

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Doesn't it make you as angry as hell when Chinese companies directly copy something. Worse, they then pass it off.

Its outright fraud.

But even worse when the copy is badly made and gives the original a bad name.

Originally Posted by Bohdan

But even worse when the copy is badly made and gives the original a bad name.

I used to manufacture a fridge slide that went into the backs of 4WDs. A nice little contract to supply 100 units every other month to a well known company in the portable fridge market. They had some made in China, where the runners were of crap quality, anyway my product was tarred with the same brush.
So I know what you're saying.
Kryn

What a fantastic story. Thanks for the heads up Willy.
Great to see they were able to defeat the Chinese and ensure their future and reputation.

Chinese copy,not sure if this is true ,I heard about a USA printing machine that was copied and branded,made and sold in China as made in the USA,
The US company was losing sales to the Chinese copies,so they leaked some plans of the" latest improved model" of their machine but with some left hand thread bolts where there should have been right hand
The result of this was that some of these wrong thread bolts came undone due to rotation causing the machines to seize up and jam,the customers called the US company for help.
The end result I heard is that these machines were then made in China under licence and made to the US standards
As I said not sure if this is true but makes a good laugh

Originally Posted by Treecycle

What a fantastic story. Thanks for the heads up Willy.
Great to see they were able to defeat the Chinese and ensure their future and reputation.

Just watch the story on iview, great story and good new about beating the cheats!

Landline, 18/09/16 episode, first story.

Ten or more years ago, I worked in the metal trade for a company now closed, making decent quality metal frames for tables chairs etc, mostly in brushed or mirror polished stainless, but also in ali and mild steel (chrome plated or powdercoated). Basically we would make whatever the customers wanted, when they wanted it.

Some smart locally based Chinese claimed to be setting up to make furniture in Melbourne and placed an order for a range of frames, 3 each of each design they were interested in, which were duly supplied and paid for. A couple of months later, we discovered them visiting our customers and undercutting our prices. One of each item ordered from us went to China as a production sample, one stayed in Melbourne as their display model, and one went to Sydney as the display model there.

A month or so later, our regular customers started to get their ex China stock, and were not happy. Poorly finished to start with, units had been stacked unprotected in containers and shipped out, accumulating a load of scratches and rub marks along the way, material sizes and frame dimensions were not accurate, units were out of square, a host of problems.

Everyone who had ordered the cut price units got burned badly on them and could not use them without channeling them through local polishers, powder coaters or platers for rework at one off rates. Ultimately cost almost double what they had been paying for our frames because of the cost of reworking them.

Oh, we were swamped with URGENT orders for frames as well, because they had a months worth of production with unusable frames and needed frames urgently to meet promises to customers. Only one of our regular customers had nor fallen for the smooth talk, yes they continued to get priority for their regular orders ahead of the urgent orders from the others.

I watched the story. Good to hear of a good locally based manufacturer making a relatively high value added product.

Stinks when Chinese companies make an exact copy. Seems to be very little recourse. Legal action and time and effort probably cost a lot of money.

As a side note I wonder if there is a market to hire out their machines? Plenty of people would love to use one for a few weeks and then hand it back. Wouldn't be many farmers that can justify owning one to sit there depreciating most of the time let alone have enough timber to mill.

Read in a beekeeping forum that the Chinese are copying the 'Flow Hive' which was designed by son and father combination in northern NSW. From memory, the Chinese had a patent that predated the Australian inventor's one. I suppose for some under-the-table cash or bribery, you can get anything predated in China!

They, like the Lucas copiers, were also using the Australian 'Flow Hive' photos to advertise their product.