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IBM Sues Company Selling Fake, Flammable Batteries 261

Bergkamp10 writes "A Computerworld article is reporting that IBM is suing Shentech for selling laptop batteries that catch on fire and sport allegedly fake IBM logos. IBM apparently followed up on a claim by a customer that an 'IBM' laptop battery bought at Shentech caught on fire and damaged his laptop. The customer reported the problem to Lenovo (who license Big Blue's trademark) who subsequently ordered 12 batteries from Shentech and found them all to be fakes. IBM is asking for US$1 million in damages for each dodgy battery sold."
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IBM Sues Company Selling Fake, Flammable Batteries

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  • $1,000,000 (Score:2, Interesting)

    Ouch. What a large amount of money. I wonder why they're suing for so much? Probably trying to defend their name. Guess that's what you get for messing with Big Blue. . .
    • Re:$1,000,000 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by insertwackynamehere ( 891357 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:52PM (#21526101) Journal
      Yeah I wonder why they would want to ruin a company who produces counterfeit products with the potential to kill someone by abusing a brand name they have no right to?
    • Re:$1,000,000 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Loki_1929 ( 550940 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @08:05PM (#21526253) Journal
      Are you insane? $1Million is cheap, frankly, considering how incredibly damaging this could have been for IBM. With enough of these out there, IBM might have been facing a hundred different suits, half of them class-action, from all over the world. That says nothing for the positively massive loss of business they could potentially suffer as a result of a turn in public perception of their products. If just one of those batteries hit the laptop of, say, the CEO of a fortune 500, IBM could see millions in business go *poof* as fast at the battery burns.

      • +1

        If Shentech is a corporation, I'd revoke their charter and liquidate their assets at auction. Then I'd prosecute their executives for knowingly infringing on a trademark (is that criminal or civil?).
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by evanbd ( 210358 )
        $1M is cheap. $1M per battery sold is an attempt to kill the company outright.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29, 2007 @08:40PM (#21526657)
      I'm particularly amused that they purchased 12... and THEN sued for $1m per sold battery.
      • by fred911 ( 83970 )
        Yea... What about the cost expended on the 12 they purchased? Where are the damages for that expense comming from?

      • I'm particularly amused that they purchased 12... and THEN sued for $1m per sold battery.

        yeah, they should have ordered a few dozen though.....

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MrAndrews ( 456547 ) *
      I would think the reason they're suing for $1M is so that it makes headlines, so that anyone who might otherwise be keen on suing IBM over their exploding batteries would then know who the real culprits are. They might get some settlement money, but it puts a big red "X" somewhere other than them (and rightly so), which will likely reduce the number of "mistaken" lawsuits they'll have to cope with. I heard once that the amount you seek in a lawsuit has less to do with actual damages, and more to do with h
    • Fire (Score:3, Funny)

      by neapolitan ( 1100101 )
      Dear Sir / Madam:

      I'm writing to inform you of a fire which has broken out on the premises of ...^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

      FIRE! FIRE! HELP ME! 123 Callington Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss
    • Re:$1,000,000 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @09:00PM (#21526851) Homepage
      RTFA It says $1m per counterfeit mark per type of item sold.
      So, if they counterfeited 2 logos on each of 3 types of batteris, IBM is asking for $6M.
  • by mmell ( 832646 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:39PM (#21525933)
    They're in the US - it should be possible to track their warehouses and resources via shipping records. Let loose the Nazgul!
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by abigor ( 540274 )
      Mailing address in NY, but I would bet anything they're based in China.
    • Only barely--read their website. The author couldn't have made it more clear that he was Chinese if he had written the site in Mandarin.
    • Let loose the Nazgul!

      Since their slogan is I Burn Machines, they might successfully argue it was simply a misunderstanding that that abbreviation was already used by some smallish, obscure company.

    • by RobertM1968 ( 951074 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @09:17PM (#21526979) Homepage Journal

      Let loose the Nazgul!

      Indeed... and not just should it be really simple... as do they have a PO Box in Flushing (as someone else mentioned), but they have a Queens Fax Number: 718-504-3790. Verizon says it's a land line. "(718) 504-3790 is a land line based in New York City Zone 6, NY. The registered service provider is Global Naps**."

      That means there has to be someone somewhere in NY... and in NY, as mentioned in the article, making money through criminal activities is treble damages... (3X)...

      In addition to that, someone indicated it would be difficult to sue the company if it was based in China. There is (1) obviously someone in the US involved in this (Shentec), and (2) IBM does business in China... but first step would be US, and (3) Shentec is also using Lenovo's trademarks... and they definitely have a major China presence (to initiate suit there).

      Im sure IBM's lawyers are smart enough to know what they are doing, and wouldnt be surprised that IBM lays the groundwork for them - or Lenovo - to continue in China.

      As of now, Shentec is still selling "IBM" & "Lenovo" batteries...

      I think IBM (and Lenovo) are gonna burn Shentec even faster than Shentec's batteries burned!!!

    • Dubious Scammers (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Bananatree3 ( 872975 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @09:56PM (#21527343)
      Shentech.com are crooks beyond simply selling laptop batteries. Look no further than their resller rating, a nice 2.9/10 [resellerratings.com]. They "sell" not only laptop batteries, but almost everything else under the sun.

      I absolutely love their ironic tagline... "Shentech - Get Your Money's worth!

      • Re:Dubious Scammers (Score:5, Informative)

        by brusk ( 135896 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @11:32PM (#21527937)
        Indeed. I bought something from Shentech about 5-6 years ago, and incurred a world of hurt. I bought a mouse--an Dell-branded Logitech USB mouse for about 6 bucks (great mouse, still going strong). Then over a year letter I discovered that someone had opened a commercial UPS account in my name and used it to ship wholesale quantities of goods from China to Shentech's address in Queens. I found this out when I received the bill. UPS was good about it and the bill went away...for a few months. Then another similar bill arrived at my new address (I'd moved from NYC to California). Again UPS's fraud squad dealt with it. I guess it was pretty obvious that someone who doesn't have a business wouldn't be shipping several thousand pounds of equipment across the Pacific. But they did something nasty with my contact info, and I've watched my credit reports carefully ever since.

        So yeah, Shentech is evil.
  • by ninjapiratemonkey ( 968710 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:39PM (#21525941)
    Shentech's slogan: They're the hottest product on the market!
    • I think Sony probably has that title sewn up.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by adona1 ( 1078711 )
      So I guess they'll be having a firesale pretty soon :)
  • Unhelpful summary (Score:4, Informative)

    by plover ( 150551 ) * on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:47PM (#21526051) Homepage Journal
    All lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable, not just these. It's just that Shentech batteries are apparently more prone to spontaneous ignition than others.
    • by caspper69 ( 548511 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:57PM (#21526185)
      All lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable, not just these. It's just that Shentech batteries are apparently more prone to spontaneous ignition than others.

      Yeah, that and they're stamping IBM's name on them and selling them to customers who think they're getting genuine IBM replacement batteries.
    • Er... no. Not anymore, though you would have been right a couple years ago. For example, these guys make a next-generation battery that basically doesn't explode or burn, even in a car crash. They aren't the only ones... a an awesome generation of new batteries is right on the horizon. I expect these batteries to usher in the age of plug-in hybrids, if not actual electric cars.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by hey! ( 33014 )
      It's not that Li-ion batteries vary in flammability. It's that they don't catch fire -- indeed they don't explode, because of an impressive array of safety features engineered into them. It starts with numerous fail-safe features built into the individual cells themselves: vents, tear away pressure relief, thermally sensitive membranes, bimetal thermal cutoff switches. The batteries in turn have special overcharging protection and redundant overcurrent and thermal protection circuits.

      The whole ensemble
  • by zykhou ( 1045884 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:47PM (#21526053)

    The store mentioned in TFA looks pretty shady to begin with, with products like "iPod Nano Alike" and such [Quote from site; "Why pay more for iPod Nano where you can get this better funtioned MP3 player for just 1/5 of the price?"].

    Usually it's a question whether the consumers should wise up, or whether cheap knockoffs should be removed due to copyright infringement. But in this case where one company is blatantly putting another company's label on their inferior product, that's undoubtedly when the law needs to fix things.

    It's good that Big blue is doing something to stop this, but part of me doesn't have much sympathy for someone who would order parts from a site like that.

  • by Karganeth ( 1017580 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:48PM (#21526065)
    Damnit, I want the genuine sony flammable batteries!
  • by rekoil ( 168689 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @07:52PM (#21526107)
    I ordered two Apple Powerbook AC adapters from them, which they were selling about $30 less than Apple list, a year or so ago; both died within a week. Shentech exchanged them - they refused to refund at first, depite my concerns that they had a bad lot - and the replacements died also. I asked for a refund this time, being pretty confident that any replacements they sent would be from the same production run, but they refused until I threatened to dispute the credit card charge with my bank. In retrospect I'm 99.9% confident that they were bogus, and this story seems to confirm my suspicions.

    The punchline? I ordered the adapters from a different company and had the same problem. Getting a refund was easier this time, and I gave up and went to the Apple store. So much for trying to save a buck.
    • If fake Apple products catch fire, it is the just wrath of the almighty Jobs sending a message to the nonbelievers. If your knockoff power adapters simply died without incident, I'd say you got off easy.
    • The best thing about their website is that they charge a $25 investigation fee if you dispute your charge with your credit card company. I'll bet they waived that fee for you. :-)
  • Are they suing because they have a patent on flaming batteries? They'll have to go after Sony too.
  • by Khyber ( 864651 ) <techkitsune@gmail.com> on Thursday November 29, 2007 @08:37PM (#21526631) Homepage Journal
    I notice a very poor and typically Eastern usage of our language. Even though the only supposed locale for this place is in NY, I wouldn't put it past the place to be a Chinese-run hackshop, given the company name and the grammar on the website. Shentech? C'mon now, the name alone raised red flags.
  • I have nothing in principle against replacement batteries. I have one for my IBM X31 in fact. But it is not labeled as IBM and somebody else takes the blame if it bursts into flames.

    Mislabeling batteries will make them less reliable, since the manufacturers have a chance of getting away with it. Just look at this article: The manufacturer is not mentioned!
  • by hacksoncode ( 239847 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @08:48PM (#21526733)
    Did the submitter actually read the article? Did anyone? It says "IBM wants treble damages or US$1 million per counterfeit mark per type of item sold.". Not $1 million per battery. Explicitly not. Painfully clearly not.

    Geez.

  • by oneiron ( 716313 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @08:49PM (#21526749)
    They also sell used and refurbished items as new. I ordered an ipod USB cable from them because the price was much cheaper than the competition. It worked, but it had grime and hair all over it. I emailed them to complain, and they sent me a replacement without hesitation. Practically an admission of guilt...it seemed.
  • Did they include said batteries with the laptops they sold? Or did they do their own investigation, purchase 12 batteries at retail, and then investigate them?
  • Shentech going out of business!

    They sent me once a wrong graphics card (with fan) - totally different from the picture shown on the web (fanless) and the person on the phone had the nerve to claim that it's the same.

    Must be a different dimension they are living in.
  • I used to do a lot of business with Shentech. Time was they stocked good gear. You could find the best parts in stock at one online store. Something happened; after building four machines (last one was a dual PIII machine) using Shentech stock exclusively I found they started to neglect keeping current with the sort of components I wanted (the usual home build gaming/poweruser sort of stuff.) I drifted away, found alternatives and haven't been back in many years.

    Looks like they've gone way down hill.
  • Why would anyone wanna buy a fake flammable battery? Is this some sort of novelty item like fake vomit?
  • Damn -- I think I bought one of these. Any ideas on how to tell if it's fake? Should I demand a genuine replacement? Refund?
    • by robogun ( 466062 )
      The fit is terrible, if you had to jam it in, or if it pops out by itself, it is likely a fake. Also, if your MaxiMiser battery meter varies wildly, it may be fake.

      They do work, & even have more amp-hours than the original, however, the probability of incidents is higher than with factory batteries, & it will be difficult to get warranty repair.

      They look EXACTLY like the genuine article.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    ...will it break my spine and ribs?
  • ObSimpsons (Score:5, Funny)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Thursday November 29, 2007 @11:53PM (#21528137) Journal

    Homer: [gasps] Look at these low, low prices on famous brand-name
    electronics!
    Bart: Don't be a sap, Dad. These are just crappy knock-offs.
    Homer: Pfft. I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see it. And look,
    there's Magnetbox and Sorny.

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