HELP Fake Titelist AP2s???

[clearwaterms]

Originally Posted by Prodaytrader

Kinda harsh. I'll reply without trying to insult you in turn.

Why would someone want a fake?

1) cheaper - no endorsement deals, marketing, CEO golden parachutes

2) just about everything in America, clubs included are made in China. Most of the time your ok with this unless the Chineese attempt to pass it off as their own then in which case we consider it junk

3) metal is metal right? A chunk of metal milled to look like a golf head surely behaves the same as similar items. Why would someone go through the trouble of making a replica and then leave it hollow?

4) most replicas I've heard of come from the same factories that design the components for name brand products. For instance, I'd have no problems letting Foxconn build for me a iPhone knockoff since I know they built Apple's.

I think you need to explain yourself a little better.

If you are buying clubs with a different name that have a similar look to the name brand clubs.  Such as those sold in the component industry, that is TOTALLY different than a fake.

A knock-off is something that has a different name and doesn't try to claim it is the "actual" product.  These often times get confused with component manufacturers.

Distance Master is a golf works brand (golf works is owned by golf galaxy who rolls up to Dick's sporting goods) and those clubs used to look just like Nike's SQ irons and woods.  But while they looked similar they were not trying to tell you they WERE Nike clubs at 1/2 the price.

clones or fakes are ACTUALLY trying to tell you that they are the real Nike / Titleist, etc...  EVERYBODY should have a problem with this.  This means that somebody has made a club that is labeled and branded as if it was a real Titleist AP2 but in fact it wasn't made with Titleist's approval or to the same standards, etc.

[golflaw]

I long ago stopped debating the law with non-lawyers, so I probably should not post this but your statement about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act having any applicability to either basic trademark or copyright counterfeiting is nonsense.

But, absolutely none of the factories in China that make brand name goods are making knock-offs, for purposes of this discussion meaning counterfeit clubs. That used to happen in China before the American companies woke up and started having their own US manufacturing people on site in the factories where their products were made. Chinese companies would run a 3rd  shift using either scraps or fake materials and over run Alligator logos. (I had a case like that 30-some years ago.) Not anymore.

If Nike or Acushnet or any other significant US company found that somehow that factory was running fakes today, that would be because their own US employees were part of the scam. They would fire them, prosecute them when they came back to the US and fire the factory. Unless someone steals the molds and trade secrets of manufacturing (which is one reason why the US companies have their own people on site), the fake companies don't have the molds, they don't have the trade secrets for making the tolerances of the real stuff, and they don't use the same components. And that is for the head. If you think that the shaft in your fake Titleist iron is made by the company whose name is on that shaft, you are really gullible.

And yes, from a moral standpoint you are stealing from the brand owner.

What amazes me is that people buy garbage like this for low prices and when they realize it is fake and doesn't work right, they then call the brand name customer service and want to know if they will send them real clubs. ( I kid you not, people actually do this, I have read the letters in counterfeiting suits. People think they can be a $20,000 Rolex watch for $5000 and when they learn it is fake they want a replacement from Rolex. Yea, right.

[ilikefishes]

Well put. If you are willing to support this type of behavior, then you will never be my friend.