Take care about asian fake Aquila strings

I'm sorry to hear people are counterfeiting your strings. It's too bad you have to go to such measures to protect your brand.
 
Seems like the Chinese communist government encourages counterfeiting, they sure don't seem to do anything about it. Heck, some companies were counterfeiting Apple iPads complete with the packaging. Apple had to scream bloody murder and get the US gov involved before the Chinese gov did anything. I will never buy a uke made in China.
 
Sorry, but how are we - humble ukulele players - to know the optical properties of strings? Especially properties beyond the visible spectrum? I certainly don't carry a UV light with me every time I visit a music store.
 
mimmo, do the fakes sound different than the genuine Aquila ? That would be a more practical for most of us to tell the difference.
 
mimmo said:
hello guys,
here is the way to distinguish the genuine strings from the asian fakes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ71DNreiaY

this is very helpfull for those that make their ukulele brands from asian factories and pay for an original aquila installation and believe to have them in honestly :(
Ciao
Mimmo
Click to expand...

I guess that this more for the brand label companies to check their incoming inventory (Kala, Ohana, Lanikai, etc.).

It amazes me to the extent that the overseas manufacturers will go to shave costs (legal or not).
 
Aloha Mimmo...
do the fakes come in fake packaging... I may have some.... so sad for you....you must be pissed, all the revenue lost from the chinese factories that do that... sue them man

mimmo said:
hello guys,
here is the way to distinguish the genuine strings from the asian fakes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ71DNreiaY

this is very helpfull for those that make their ukulele brands from asian factories and pay for an original aquila installation and believe to have them in honestly :(
Ciao
Mimmo
Click to expand...
 
Bill Mc said:
mimmo, do the fakes sound different than the genuine Aquila ? That would be a more practical for most of us to tell the difference.
Click to expand...

Bill, I think Mimmo was talking mostly to importers who have their brands, made in China (or somewhere in Asia) for them, that are potentially receiving counterfeit strings on the ukes they import. Trust me, if many of these Chinese manufactures can save 50 cents by counterfeiting and deceiving, they will go to great lengths to do it.

Would be interesting to go to a big uke store and check several imports that have the "Aquila Strings" tag hanging off the tuner.

Unfortunately there is absolutely no recourse, especially when the importer is being ripped off and lied to by his manufacturer. All you can do as the end user, is demand a new set of strings from whomever you bought it from.
 
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That's kind of crazy that there would be fake Aquila strings out there. (I guess they'd only be fake if they came in Aquila packaging, since I'm sure they can't possibly have a corner on the white-colored-string market.)

But that is actually very cool that Aquilas glow neon under UV light. Imagine playing your ukulele at cosmic bowling...actually, someone needs to make a uke that would glow like crazy under blacklight.
 
Agree with Skinny. Speaking from experience, my invention (U.S. patented) was almost knocked off in China. Within weeks of production, we found an ad for my product using my exact image from my website (idiots!) and fortunately they were advertising on a very popular website that deals with manufacturing so we issued a take down order and had it removed from the site within days. It caused me to question my manufacture who had a U.S. office who swore they did not provide the information, but it was clear someone at the factory talked.

You have ZERO recourse in China for anything, if it's being done in China you're screwed if they knock you off.
U.S. Customs (Dept. of Homeland Security) is so focused on drugs and terrorism and the newly booming human traffic problem from China, that unfortunately they are not going to be interested in catching counterfeit strings. Sucks, for those of us who have worked hard on something no one else put the time or money into only to have someone knock it off and sell it as yours. The uke community is pretty communicative so if someone does know where it's coming from, the best thing is to spread the word, and if anyone selling ukes has them on their ukes, making sure they know and replace them with the valid product. I would hope no legitimate authorized reseller would ever purchasing something like this knowingly to make a few extra bucks.
 
Hi,
just a few more explanations:
1) this notice is made not for retailers but for those that has their ukulele brand
2) we have international patents and ndone trademark logo worldwhide.
3) the problem is that some factories install fake aquilas and fake hang tags and fake aquila logo. I mean, they done a total copy of our original hang tags. This is not legal.
Aquila has the possibility to stop any ukulele importation at the local customs. The problem is that this action will destroy many and many EU and US brands.
The crime ufortunately is both for the illegal importation of counterfeict product with fake hang tags on the western company responsability. Yes, they asked to the asian factory the original aquilas so they also suffer of a not honest business. Unfortunaterly for the patent's regulamentations they are at the same level of responsability. many brands bought the UV detector just to assure that strings are original aquilas because they payed for them.

Mimmo
 
Aloha Mimmo,
I was just going to say this abuse is much more from the factories and not the retail market really is.... that is where most of your business loss would come from since they deal in bulk...
Glad you figured how to identify the fakes......it's like the water marks on US currency....good goings..wish you luck in fixing your problems....yeah shady business overseas, real sad know....
Wonder if Italy has a goverment foreign business and trade office you can file a complaint, would be Worth looking into...Good Luck Mimmo :)
 
Last edited:
mimmo said:
Hi,
just a few more explanations:
1) this notice is made not for retailers but for those that has their ukulele brand
2) we have international patents and ndone trademark logo worldwhide.
3) the problem is that some factories install fake aquilas and fake hang tags and fake aquila logo. I mean, they done a total copy of our original hang tags. This is not legal.
Aquila has the possibility to stop any ukulele importation at the local customs. The problem is that this action will destroy many and many EU and US brands.
The crime ufortunately is both for the illegal importation of counterfeict product with fake hang tags on the western company responsability. Yes, they asked to the asian factory the original aquilas so they also suffer of a not honest business. Unfortunaterly for the patent's regulamentations they are at the same level of responsability. many brands bought the UV detector just to assure that strings are original aquilas because they payed for them.
Mimmo
Click to expand...

Exactly what I thought you were talking about. I imagine you would end up losing more business if you shut them down at customs.

Lanikai for example. Hohner Corp. is the importer, not sure who the Asian manufacture is. But if they were shut down at customs, it would cost Hohner a bloody fortune, and they would most likely demand the manufacture to cease using Aquila strings altogether. Like Mimmo suggests, not good for the importer, retailer, consumer or himself. He has to work it from the inside and let the ones that got through go, take the loss, and hopefully get it stopped.

Of course, there will be some importers that don't care if their ukes have counterfeit strings, but one would think, most would.
 
Last edited:
blue_knight_usa said:
Agree with Skinny. Speaking from experience, my invention (U.S. patented) was almost knocked off in China. Within weeks of production, we found an ad for my product using my exact image from my website (idiots!) and fortunately they were advertising on a very popular website that deals with manufacturing so we issued a take down order and had it removed from the site within days. It caused me to question my manufacture who had a U.S. office who swore they did not provide the information, but it was clear someone at the factory talked.
Click to expand...

Google Mandiant and NYTimes. Mandiant is a technology security company and they released a study done over a couple of years. They caught the Chinese government involved with hacking. A whole unit of the Chinese Army is thought to be devoted to hacking cybersecurity systems. Part of what they were doing was infiltrating computer systems to steal details of various products. Most were technological, but some were clearly just for commercial applications.
 
fortunately , aquila has a very very strong co operation wioth lanikai. we have also a cobranding of strings. The lanikai factories emplòoy original aquilas. The problems was on most of the other ones. At the Shangai fair october 2012 we gave to some 94 asian factories a legal comunication that the ukulele of the stand has not original aquilas. we have a loegal office in Shanghai that work daily on this dangerou8s problem. The final western customer is sure that the strings are originals and so the hangtags while instead it is not true. For Aquila done some tests worldwhide is very easy. we have many and many friends alnd lovers of the strings that can do this job for us. in Thailand stores for example anr realize who is the manufacturer. we know almost all the final ukulele manufacturer of the brands in the market that made their instrument in Asia. In total thei nare 190 factories. many collaborate between them but they like to give us the impression that they are competitors or in conflit. There are instances were 5 big factories colaborate betweenj them underground while under the sun it seems to mbe contrary
Regards
Mimmo
 
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