Shanzhai (??): Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics.

At first, this shanzhai shoe phone discussed on the Cloned in China blog looks like just another example of trademark counterfeiting:

Generic Phone Inside, Trademark Infringement Outside

Impossible is nothing, so now we have this Adidas shoe phone, another game the Shanzhai players did with these worlds most famous brands. When we don’t take it to the seriousness that concerns the law, we feel it’s kind of funny. The phone looks like a sport short from the front size and even the back is also made to look like the sole of a shoe. But after opening it, its charm fades completely. It’s a just an ordinary clamshell phone, though the Adidas logo could be seem on the phone’s End Call and Answer Call buttons.Compared to the phone’s design, its others specs are not even worth being mentioned.

Not so fast. In the world of fake stuff, there is a wide range of IP infringement going on out there. You’ve got your trademark infringement on products like shoes, cigarettes, and luxury items, and in another camp there are the patent infringers who rip off designs and technology. Let’s skip copyright for the moment.

So that “Adidas” phone is an example of trademark infringement, and as the blogger mentions, the phone innards are nothing special. This is a pretty cheap knockoff, I guess.

But if you’re going to slap a counterfeit trademark on an electronic device, at some point an entrepreneurial shanzhai firm that is already cranking out fake iPads or Nokia mobiles is going to wonder what sort of price they can get with a “double shanzhai” product. I could see, for example, a fake iPhone that looks like a Ferrari from the back. How about a shanzhai Lenovo touchscreen netbook that looks like a Gucci or Prada bag (with counterfeit trademark, of course) from the outside?

We’re already halfway there, folks.