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back to article Chinese cops bust culinary Apple trademark thieves

Steely-eyed industrial gumshoes in the east-central Chinese city of Wuhan have foiled a nefarious plan by dishonorable appliance punters to exploit the power of the Apple brand. In the Qiaokou district of that riverside city of 10 million souls, a firm dishonestly identifying themselves as "Apple Limited" had – without legal …

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  1. Anonymous John

    As long as it was fully charged,

    it probably could boil noodles if dropped into the pan.

    3 0
    1. Arctic fox
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      MacCook Air

      See title.

      2 0
  2. Azzy
    Thumb Down

    Damn :-(

    They're shut down already?

    That sucks, I would totally buy one of those "iPhone" stoves, just for lols... "Happy birthday! I bought you an iPhone!"

    11 1
  3. John Tserkezis

    Horror! Shock!

    China cares about copyright infringement now?

    3 0
    1. Steven Roper
      Reply Icon

      I was going to say...

      .here I was hoping China would turn out to be the last best hope of freedom from the tyranny of intellectual property rapidly descending about this benighted planet, even to the point of my being prepared to sacrifice freedom of speech in exchange for freedom from patents, but no, they seem to be falling into the same IP trap as the west. What a shame.

      1 2
      1. Giles Jones Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: I was going to say...

        Nothing wrong with protecting your trademark IP and branding.

        Without protection for branding and trademarks it becomes very hard to buy the genuine item as it allows the counterfeiters and cloners to dump all manner of fake rubbish on the market.

        If you've ever bought anything from China and spent an hour trying to find out who the hell made it (to find drivers or updates) then you'll be glad we take trademarks seriously.

        1 0
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Flame

        Re: I was going to say...

        Your freedom of speech does not preclude my right to protect my small business from clones who could drive me into the ground by dint of bigger marketing budgets. And "freedom of speech" in any case does not allow you to appropriate any. Creation of anyone else and claim it as your own - eg, it would be easy to rip El Reg's content wholesale, or he'll, just start another el Register and claim to be the real one.

        The irony is that a free-for-all in IP and trademark, as you suggest, would benefit large companies at the expense of small ones almost exclusively.

        Think beyond the first example you see before you make yourself look like an idiot.

        0 0
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iPhone stove

    I'm sure there's an updated version of the old "I burnt my ear the other day. The phone rang while I was doing the ironing!" joke, in there somewhere. But I'll let someone else have the fun of crafting it.

    1 0
  5. xantastic
    Pirate

    They even stole the rounded edges!

    Dastardly.

    13 0
  6. ItsNotMe
    Unhappy

    Another inventive item...

    ...from the mind of Stove Jobs. God, I miss him.

    14 0
    1. petur
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Re: Another inventive item...

      Nah... Tim Cook

      8 0
  7. Lars Silver badge
    Coat

    Leave that problem to Proview

    And let the Apple layers sleep for a moment.

    0 1
  8. TheOtherHobbes

    Wot?

    No burning platform with Nokia?

    0 1
  9. ideapete
    Facepalm

    I wondered why ?

    The telephone reception on our gas stove is so bad

    1 0
    1. ScottAS2
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: I wondered why ?

      No, no, no. You're just holding it wrong.

      11 0
  10. mark 63 Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    its a setup i tells ya!

    Sounds like the govt/police have come under some pressure to crackdown on the copyright infringements so someone said

    "Quick, take these apple iphone stickers and go out and stick them on something, then make a big show of the polioce raid. Oh , and if its some crap we couldnt sell anyway, all the better"

    2 0
  11. amanfromearth

    Just like the AppleTV

    Steve did say that project was a hob-by

    2 0
  12. bazza Silver badge

    Just like an iSomething...

    ...only a lot more functionality.

    Flame bait in oh so many ways?

    As for spotting the fakes, you can tell because it's got more than one control. Apple would have designed it with just one dial...

    1 0
    1. bazza Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Just like an iSomething...

      Oh wait, it does have just one control. Must be genuine!

      1 0
  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ubiquitous Apple

    I am currently studying in China and you would be amazed by the amount of products that use Apple's logo. Gas burner? Yeah sure. Do you want a pink wallet and a eye-popping fuchsia sweater both with the logo to go with that? Just go along any bigger street and you'll find it.

    Seriously, it is so common that I stopped noticing it - Chinese are crazy about Apple! And I mean crazy-crazy!

    0 0
  14. Wang N Staines

    This could be very dangerous if a child put these hot stoves to their ears.

    I'm glad the Chinese quickly removed them from the public.

    0 0
  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Eh?

    What baffles me is how they can tell it's not genuine.

    4 0
    1. Tom 35
      Reply Icon

      Re: Eh?

      The gas cylinder is user replaceable.

      8 1
  16. GitMeMyShootinIrons

    Brings a whole new meaning to 'Hot Line'.

    2 0
  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple making the same mistakes....

    Shame to see apple making the same mistakes regardless of the market they operate in....

    Four static hobs arranged in a grid is terribly old hat now. I want live tiled hobs you can slide in and out all of garish colours

    1 0
  18. Stefan 6

    But is it actually illegal?

    Using the Apple logo is obviously not legal, but as far as i know Apple only trademarked the term "iPhone" only in conjunction with "mobile phones, digital audio player, electronic data-transmitting device, handheld unit for playing electronic games" ... so any company that wants could apply for the iPhone trademark for a gas stove ?!

    3 0
  19. ZiggyZiggy
    Joke

    Sounds great - but you can only use it to cook Apple approved foods?

    2 0
  20. Esskay
    Joke

    only a matter of time now

    before Apple starts sueing smeg for putting dials on the front of their ovens...

    1 0
  21. Winkypop Silver badge
    Coat

    The new iPhone iStove

    Just what every Chinese bachelor needs in his iPad.

    1 0
  22. Parax
    Joke

    Who'd a thunk it.

    Turns out that when you put iphone to your ear it really does fry your brain.

    1 0
  23. AceRimmer
    Stop

    Not the first time this has happened

    I seem to recall Apple having a run in with a record company regarding trademark infringement

    0 0
    1. Matthew 3
      Reply Icon

      Re: Not the first time this has happened

      ...and they created a sound on the Mac called 'sosumi' as a way of showing their high regard for legal process.

      1 0
  24. Spotswood
    Coffee/keyboard

    but notice the iPod-like circular control wheel

    HAHAHAHAHA!!! Coffee spilt on keyboard and splattered over screens.....

    0 1
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