May 01, 2018
Not really. The Guardian has an article that begins by telling readers how Amazon produces a copy of a designer laptop stand and sells it for half the price as the designer stand. While the article correctly refers to the Amazon product a “knockoff,” in other contexts, such as when discussing Chinese copies of US products, these copies are often referred to as “counterfeits.”
This is not just a question of semantics. With a counterfeit, the buyer is being deceived. They pay a higher price because they actually believe that it is produced by the company in question. In the case of a knockoff, or unauthorized copy, the buyer knows that they are not getting the product produced the designer company, but are paying a considerably lower price.
In the case of the knockoff, the customer is benefiting, as is the seller. There could be an issue where the designer’s property rights are being violated, but both of the parties to the exchange are benefiting. By contrast, in the case of a counterfeit item, the buyer is being ripped off. They pay more for the item because it has been misrepresented.
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