50 Shades Of Fake: How To Protect Your Product From Copycats In China

Buyers and vendors are seen at Shenzhen's Seg electronics market, a popular place for hardware startup entrepreneurs to buy components for their inventions and prototypes in Shenzhen, China. Did you know that your product might be copied in China even before you ship it? While copying happens elsewhere, including Facebook blatantly copying Snapchat features or Google Home being a strong echo of Amazon's echo, Chinese copycats can be particularly aggressive. Realistically, the gigantic Chinese supply chain, built over decades with some of the dollars from our past and future iPhones, cannot possibly move overnight (or over a U.S. presidential term). As a result, most high-tech manufacturing will remain in China--at least for a while.