Author Topic: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries  (Read 27311 times)

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Offline rstofer

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #25 on: October 20, 2018, 05:06:04 pm »
Its all about buying rights to territory. If MegaDeafCorp buys the right to your country's market (and you) they have the right to prevent any government allowing any circumvention of their property rights.

Suppose they bought a right to a hot new cancer drug and you had cancer, went around the law and bought it from India, saving yourself a million dollars. Where does that leave them?
Empty handed because such deals are unenforceable. Some big companies try to do that by denying customer service on products brought outside the country but there is no legal way to stop it. Also companies like to spread FUD about buying abroad being illegal but it isn't (again: which is why Apple is playing the counterfeit card).

What you describe is happening on a large scale already and saving people a lot of money on medicines.

PS: I'm writing about non-counterfeit items here.

And, in terms of medicines, how do you determine that they are legitimate - before you die?  Thank you, I'll just depend on my local pharmacy and health insurance.  Somebody local that I can sue!

SCUBA gear is the same thing.  I pay a LOT more for ScubaPro regulators in the US than they sell for in, say, Italy.  Yet I'm not supposed to order one from Italy because my local dealer shouldn't and probably won't support it.  Yes, they check serial numbers!  And in general, the manufacturers don't sell repair kits.  Only authorized repair centers can get the parts.  In some ways, this makes sense.  At least in terms of parts.

Same thing with textbooks.  I can buy a text in the US for, say, $200.  I can find the same exact book, printed in India and imported back to the US for $20.  And on the cover it will say "Not For Import To The US".  Yet they wind up on Alibris as "used" books categorized as "new".  Same book but the Indian version might use lighter paper and a lesser quality binding but, still, 10% of the cost.
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #26 on: October 20, 2018, 05:29:47 pm »
Its all about buying rights to territory. If MegaDeafCorp buys the right to your country's market (and you) they have the right to prevent any government allowing any circumvention of their property rights.

Suppose they bought a right to a hot new cancer drug and you had cancer, went around the law and bought it from India, saving yourself a million dollars. Where does that leave them?
Empty handed because such deals are unenforceable. Some big companies try to do that by denying customer service on products brought outside the country but there is no legal way to stop it. Also companies like to spread FUD about buying abroad being illegal but it isn't (again: which is why Apple is playing the counterfeit card).

What you describe is happening on a large scale already and saving people a lot of money on medicines.

PS: I'm writing about non-counterfeit items here.
And, in terms of medicines, how do you determine that they are legitimate - before you die?  Thank you, I'll just depend on my local pharmacy and health insurance.  Somebody local that I can sue!
Again you are falling for the FUD spread by companies. Please stop doing that and think for one second. I never wrote to order medicines yourself. I wrote about the local pharamacies buying approved medicines from cheaper sources. In the NL the government is actively forcing pharmacies to buy the same medicines with the same quality levels at lower costs. Ofcourse you don't believe that because you have been spoonfed FUD for decades and allow yourself to be robbed. In the NL buying cheaper medicines saves about 10 euro per person annually for cost of medicines alone. In the US that can probably be 50 to 100 dollars per person and in turn saving 12 to 25 billion dollars of health care costs annually without reducing health care quality.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 05:33:41 pm by nctnico »
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #27 on: October 20, 2018, 05:37:07 pm »
You just fell for the FUD companies are spreading!  :palm:
No, it is sadly you who has no clue what you are talking about. Try to import such goods to Netherlands and you will see what your customs will do with it. FYI:
FYI: Louis is importing genuine Apple batteries NOT counterfeits. In his video he explicity states that he wants to use NOS batteries for fixing his client's devices. He is not that stupid to import counterfeits and then complain about being caught! It is just Apple who pulled some strings in the customs department and put Louis' address on the black list for extra checks.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 
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Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #28 on: October 20, 2018, 05:39:53 pm »
So, yes the IS a law that precludes importing goods that violate trademarks.
And where is Louis violating trademarks? He is buying batteries made by Apple from abroad.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #29 on: October 20, 2018, 05:40:10 pm »
Guys, stop mixing stuff like medicines and textbooks into this. It has nothing to do with it.

Medicines are generally protected by patents (that's why you typically can't import and sell a cheaper generic even under a different name!) and textbooks are protected by copyright, where the rights owner may or may not license the printing of the book under different conditions for different territories.

Either of this has zero, zilch, nada, nothing whatsoever with Luis' problem. Trademarks are different from copyrights and patents, different laws and different rules apply.

If you don't like the law lobby your parliament members to change it. But talking about "corporate fud" when you obviously don't understand even the basic difference between the different types of IP is really counterproductive.
 
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Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #30 on: October 20, 2018, 05:52:31 pm »
Trademark law only restricts import of goods made for/by a different company using the same name / brand / logo but that isn't the case.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 05:55:25 pm by nctnico »
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 
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Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #31 on: October 20, 2018, 05:57:21 pm »
So, yes the IS a law that precludes importing goods that violate trademarks.
And where is Louis violating trademarks? He is buying batteries made by Apple from abroad.

No, he is not buying batteries made by Apple from abroad. That's the entire problem.

Apple stopped making this type of battery long time ago because it is for an older model of laptop. What he has done is that he has bought some refurbished (or more likely aftermarket) but Apple-branded batteries.

His claims that these are batteries taken from recycled or demo laptops somewhere in China, packaged up and sent to him in volume, are rather difficult to take at face value.

Even a brand new, unused lithium battery made 5-6 years ago by Apple (given that we are talking about machines Apple doesn't support anymore) would be pretty degraded already and not something you could put into a client's machine and warranty it as new. A battery from a store demo laptop or, even worse, recycled from an old laptop? Suuure and monkeys fly.

Whether these were originally made by Apple or not is really irrelevant at this point, because they have been either extensively modified (if nothing else then the insides were replaced) or most likely weren't even Apple made to begin with. So Apple understandably objects to have something like that imported (and sold to customers) with their logo on it. That's all.

He is playing ignorant and talks about that case with the repaired displays - but that's not at all the same thing. Those parts were provably Apple-made and only repaired. How do you repair a worn out lithium battery? Right, you can't unless you replace the guts.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 06:00:17 pm by janoc »
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #32 on: October 20, 2018, 05:59:08 pm »
Once parts are legally sold by a company, they don't really have much say over them. Ignoring the DMCA shenanigans that sometimes go on, but this doesn't appear to be such a case.

I assume Apple will need to conclusively prove these are fake batteries. It seems unreasonable you can just claim they're fake because you won't sell them when there are hundreds of thousands of batteries out there.
 
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Offline rstofer

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #33 on: October 20, 2018, 05:59:22 pm »
Again you are falling for the FUD spread by companies. Please stop doing that and think for one second. I never wrote to order medicines yourself. I wrote about the local pharamacies buying approved medicines from cheaper sources. In the NL the government is actively forcing pharmacies to buy the same medicines with the same quality levels at lower costs. Ofcourse you don't believe that because you have been spoonfed FUD for decades and allow yourself to be robbed. In the NL buying cheaper medicines saves about 10 euro per person annually for cost of medicines alone. In the US that can probably be 50 to 100 dollars per person and in turn saving 12 to 25 billion dollars of health care costs annually without reducing health care quality.

I couldn't care less about $100 per year.  Our health care isn't socialized (yet!) so I pretty much pay for my own drugs through my HMO.  Yes, the cost is fixed at $10/refill (90 or 100 days) but I'm betting the HMO isn't losing money.  They buy multiple millions of dollars worth of meds per year so I suspect they get some kind of deal.  If generics are available, that's what they dispense.  They won't usually carry brand name drugs.

There are still patent restrictions on imports.  While I disagree with the way drugs are priced in the US and then sold a lot cheaper in other countries, unless the FDA certifies a foreign source so my HMO can buy from them, I'm not interested in the issue.

But, true, this has nothing to do with the trademark issue of the imported batteries.

« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 06:03:25 pm by rstofer »
 

Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #34 on: October 20, 2018, 06:03:40 pm »
Once parts are legally sold by a company, they don't really have much say over them. Ignoring the DMCA shenanigans that sometimes go on, but this doesn't appear to be such a case.

I assume Apple will need to conclusively prove these are fake batteries. It seems unreasonable you can just claim they're fake because you won't sell them when there are hundreds of thousands of batteries out there.

No they won't. That's not how the law works.

The onus is on the importer to show to the customs that they have permission from the trademark holder to import it (e.g. because they are doing it on the trademark owner's behalf or because they have got a license or something similar).

All Apple needs to do is to say to the customs when they call that they have found a package full of Apple-branded merchandise that it isn't theirs and that that importer doesn't have their permission to use the trademark. Case closed.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #35 on: October 20, 2018, 06:04:25 pm »
No, he is not buying batteries made by Apple from abroad. That's the entire problem.

Apple stopped making this type of battery long time ago because it is for an older model of laptop. What he has done is that he has bought some refurbished (or more likely aftermarket) but Apple-branded batteries.

His claims that these are batteries taken from recycled or demo laptops somewhere in China, packaged up and sent to him in volume, are rather difficult to take at face value.

Even a brand new, unused lithium battery made 5-6 years ago by Apple (given that we are talking about machines Apple doesn't support anymore) would be pretty degraded already and not something you could put into a client's machine and warranty it as new. A battery from a store demo laptop or, even worse, recycled from an old laptop? Suuure ...

Whether these were originally made by Apple or not is really irrelevant at this point, because they have been either extensively modified (if nothing else then the insides were replaced) or most likely weren't even Apple made to begin with. So Apple understandably objects to have something like that imported (and sold to customers) with their logo on it. That's all.

He is playing ignorant and talks about that case with the repaired displays - but that's not at all the same thing. Those parts were provably Apple-made and only repaired. How do you repair a worn out lithium battery? Right, you can't unless you replace the guts.
It seems Apple will need to prove they're fake or modified. Batteries have a much longer shelf life than you are supposing here and importing parts manufactured by Apple isn't a trademark violation. When they're repaired or refurbished it gets a little more interesting, but even then Apple may not have a claim. Can you imagine every car with new tires being imported confiscated by customs?
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #36 on: October 20, 2018, 06:06:46 pm »
Whether these were originally made by Apple or not is really irrelevant at this point, because they have been either extensively modified (if nothing else then the insides were replaced) or most likely weren't even Apple made to begin with. So Apple understandably objects to have something like that imported (and sold to customers) with their logo on it. That's all.

He is playing ignorant and talks about that case with the repaired displays - but that's not at all the same thing. Those parts were provably Apple-made and only repaired. How do you repair a worn out lithium battery? Right, you can't unless you replace the guts.
That is just speculation at this point. According to Louis these are genuine Apple batteries and that is all the information we have. Again: I wouldn't expect Louis to make a big fuss about batteries which are less than genuine parts.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #37 on: October 20, 2018, 06:09:26 pm »
No they won't. That's not how the law works.

The onus is on the importer to show to the customs that they have permission from the trademark holder to import it (e.g. because they are doing it on the trademark owner's behalf or because they have got a license or something similar).

All Apple needs to do is to say to the customs when they call that they have found a package full of Apple-branded merchandise that it isn't theirs and that that importer doesn't have their permission to use the trademark. Case closed.
You don't need permission from a party to import goods manufactured by that same party. That's not a trademark violation. It'd be totally undesirable too. Imagine every company having legal say over every product they ever sold entering or leaving the country. It'd become a shitfest.
 
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Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #38 on: October 20, 2018, 06:11:53 pm »

It seems Apple will need to prove they're fake or modified. Batteries have a much longer shelf life than you are supposing here and importing parts manufactured by Apple isn't a trademark violation. When they're repaired or refurbished it gets a little more interesting, but even then Apple may not have a claim. Can you imagine every car with new tires being imported confiscated by customs?

The part about Apple having to prove it I have answered above in the meantime.

The problem is that how do you prove something is genuine Apple made? Only Apple can say that. And they are claiming that those batteries aren't genuine already.

Can you imagine some sort of expert witness trying to convince the manufacturer that something has been made by them when the manufacturer claims the opposite? That's going to be one heck of a tall order, especially when there is no paper trail proving where the components came from.

The tires analogy doesn't work - if you buy e.g. a BMW you aren't buying BMW tires (BMW does not make tires) so BMW cannot claim a trademark violation because the importer has used Continental instead of Pirelli tires on it.

 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #39 on: October 20, 2018, 06:14:35 pm »
No they won't. That's not how the law works.

The onus is on the importer to show to the customs that they have permission from the trademark holder to import it (e.g. because they are doing it on the trademark owner's behalf or because they have got a license or something similar).

All Apple needs to do is to say to the customs when they call that they have found a package full of Apple-branded merchandise that it isn't theirs and that that importer doesn't have their permission to use the trademark. Case closed.
You don't need permission from a party to import goods manufactured by that same party. That's not a trademark violation. It'd be totally undesirable too. Imagine every company having legal say over every product they ever sold entering or leaving the country. It'd become a shitfest.
Exactly! Trademark protection is only there to prevent having two brands with the same name AND product operating in the same market space. Nothing more, nothing less.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 
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Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #40 on: October 20, 2018, 06:16:38 pm »
You don't need permission from a party to import goods manufactured by that same party. That's not a trademark violation. It'd be totally undesirable too. Imagine every company having legal say over every product they ever sold entering or leaving the country. It'd become a shitfest.

Yes but the problem is that Louis cannot prove those are genuine Apple parts. The onus is on him to prove it (that's what the law says), not on Apple to prove they are counterfeit. If he had paperwork showing that the parts are original (e.g. an original Apple invoice from his supplier) then all he would need to do is to call customs and show them the paper to have the shipment released.

He has only the word of his Chinese supplier, *wink wink*. He didn't say where the batteries came from, only alluded to that they were maybe pulled from some demo laptops or old stock and what not. So he either doesn't know, or, more likely, knows well that the batteries are not 100% genuine but doesn't care because they work.

Just this time he got unlucky because his shipment got inspected and seized.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 06:23:56 pm by janoc »
 
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #41 on: October 20, 2018, 06:38:29 pm »
The part about Apple having to prove it I have answered above in the meantime.

The problem is that how do you prove something is genuine Apple made? Only Apple can say that. And they are claiming that those batteries aren't genuine already.

Can you imagine some sort of expert witness trying to convince the manufacturer that something has been made by them when the manufacturer claims the opposite? That's going to be one heck of a tall order, especially when there is no paper trail proving where the components came from.

The tires analogy doesn't work - if you buy e.g. a BMW you aren't buying BMW tires (BMW does not make tires) so BMW cannot claim a trademark violation because the importer has used Continental instead of Pirelli tires on it.
Apple can do plenty of things to prove they're fake batteries. It's very unlikely they will have been perfectly reproduced or remanufactured, so if they can't demonstrate any differences their story comes into question. They will also have heaps of paperwork showing where batteries from various batches would have went. If they can show discrepancies there, their story becomes plausible. If not, it doesn't seem to be a likely story. They are making a claim here.

Conversely, Louis can't prove they're original parts. You can't prove a negative. He can prove that there are no differences between his and official batteries, which makes his story likely.

The car comparison is apt. Just imagine a non BMW oil filler cap being used and the car being confiscated as a consequence. Or it having an aftermarket exhaust. Everyone understands that's ridiculous and gives companies a lot of undesirable power. After they sell the product, they don't have a say over what you do to it any longer. It all boils down to the same power grab we see time and time again, with companies wanting to dictate how and when we use, repair and discard their products. Our own products, which we bought and own.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 06:41:21 pm by Mr. Scram »
 
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Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #42 on: October 20, 2018, 06:52:53 pm »
Conversely, Louis can't prove they're original parts. You can't prove a negative. He can prove that there are no differences between his and official batteries, which makes his story likely.
When push comes to shove Louis will have to prove that the batteries are genuine. This can be done by comparing a real battery (from a known genuine source) to the ones he want to import. He'll probably need to hire a third party expert for that.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline rstofer

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #43 on: October 20, 2018, 07:27:19 pm »
You don't need permission from a party to import goods manufactured by that same party. That's not a trademark violation. It'd be totally undesirable too. Imagine every company having legal say over every product they ever sold entering or leaving the country. It'd become a shitfest.

Yes you do!  Read the applicable section of the US Code above.

Even if it is the very same manufacturer, slipping some units out of the current production line so they are genuine in every respect, they still can't be imported if they violate the trademark laws.  In other words, the only legitimate destination for those batteries would be Apple itself.  Because the manufacturer didn't have Apple's permission to use the trademarks for those side-stream batteries.

It's really pretty simple, the law exists, and it's pretty easy to read and it absolutely precludes any manufacturer from using Apple's trademarks without permission.
 
Rossman's going nowhere with this...
 
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Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #44 on: October 20, 2018, 07:30:51 pm »
Apple can do plenty of things to prove they're fake batteries. It's very unlikely they will have been perfectly reproduced or remanufactured, so if they can't demonstrate any differences their story comes into question. They will also have heaps of paperwork showing where batteries from various batches would have went. If they can show discrepancies there, their story becomes plausible. If not, it doesn't seem to be a likely story. They are making a claim here.

Of course they can but they don't have to. What is so difficult to comprehend that it is the importer who needs to prove that they have the right to use the trademark in this case? It is written very explicitly both in the letter Louis has received or in the law itself. Whether by showing they have permission from the mark owner or because the goods are actually genuine. The mark owner does not need to do anything in this case.

This is not a court case with a plaintiff and defendant where the plaintiff is accusing the defendant of something and thus the burden of proof is on them. This is customs seizing an item because they suspect it being counterfeit and are requiring the importer to produce documentation that they have the right to use the trademark otherwise the item will be destroyed.

Conversely, Louis can't prove they're original parts. You can't prove a negative. He can prove that there are no differences between his and official batteries, which makes his story likely.

He could easily prove that the components are genuine e.g. by producing an invoice from Apple (or Apple OEM) supplied to him by the seller that sold him the batteries.

The car comparison is apt. Just imagine a non BMW oil filler cap being used and the car being confiscated as a consequence. Or it having an aftermarket exhaust. Everyone understands that's ridiculous and gives companies a lot of undesirable power. After they sell the product, they don't have a say over what you do to it any longer. It all boils down to the same power grab we see time and time again, with companies wanting to dictate how and when we use, repair and discard their products. Our own products, which we bought and own.

You are completely off-base here. A better analogy would be customs confiscating a box of oil filler caps with BMW logos on them. Or a container full of exhausts with BMW logos on them.

This is not about something having an aftermarket component installed, this is about the Apple mark (likely company name & logos) being used on an item that is suspected being counterfeit. Your car analogy would work if customs were confiscating a shipment of Apple laptops with aftermarket batteries in them. Which obviously isn't the case here.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 07:38:23 pm by janoc »
 

Online wraper

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #45 on: October 20, 2018, 07:37:21 pm »
This has nothing to do with Right to Repair.  You cannot import trademarked products without the written consent of the trademark owner, plain and simple.

   Exactly.

    It's real simple Louis, buy Chinese batteries that aren't marked as "Apple" batteries.  Generic labeled batteries work just as well as the brand-labeled ones.  If unmarked ones aren't available you could even have your Chinese supplier scrape the fake Apple label off before sending them. 

    Or where you planning on re-selling them to unsuspecting customers as a genuine Apple product???  Since I doubt that you needed fifty battery packs for your own use.
Sure you did not watch the video  :palm:. Those were genuine batteries pulled out from scrap. Also there is an issue that Genuine LCDs which were refubrised (replaced glass) get seized because apple put their logo on the flex cable. And nope, generic batteries do not work as well.
 
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Online wraper

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #46 on: October 20, 2018, 07:40:49 pm »
You don't need permission from a party to import goods manufactured by that same party. That's not a trademark violation. It'd be totally undesirable too. Imagine every company having legal say over every product they ever sold entering or leaving the country. It'd become a shitfest.

Yes you do!  Read the applicable section of the US Code above.

Even if it is the very same manufacturer, slipping some units out of the current production line so they are genuine in every respect, they still can't be imported if they violate the trademark laws.  In other words, the only legitimate destination for those batteries would be Apple itself.  Because the manufacturer didn't have Apple's permission to use the trademarks for those side-stream batteries.

It's really pretty simple, the law exists, and it's pretty easy to read and it absolutely precludes any manufacturer from using Apple's trademarks without permission.
 
Rossman's going nowhere with this...
You claim here something completely different. Illegally produced batteries != legally produced batteries (say pulls from defective laptops) imported through unofficial channel.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 07:42:30 pm by wraper »
 
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Offline janoc

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #47 on: October 20, 2018, 07:48:14 pm »
Sure you did not watch the video  :palm:. Those were genuine batteries pulled out from scrap. Also there is an issue that Genuine LCDs which were refubrised (replaced glass) get seized because apple put their logo on the flex cable. And nope, generic batteries do not work as well.

And you actually believe that claim - that a battery pulled out of a scrapped old machine would be as good as new. Without doing anything to it.  :palm:

Furthermore, Louis didn't really say this was the case. He has only said in the video that these are original batteries that could have come for example from demo units or recycled computers. I.e. he does not really know where they are from! (or knows but didn't say).

The deal with the LCDs was different - that was about provably genuine parts that were sent to China to be  repaired (broken glass replaced) and got intercepted on the way back by the customs. Not about LCDs of who knows what origin with an Apple logo slapped on them.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 07:58:55 pm by janoc »
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #48 on: October 20, 2018, 07:57:56 pm »
You don't need permission from a party to import goods manufactured by that same party. That's not a trademark violation. It'd be totally undesirable too. Imagine every company having legal say over every product they ever sold entering or leaving the country. It'd become a shitfest.
Yes you do!  Read the applicable section of the US Code above.

Even if it is the very same manufacturer, slipping some units out of the current production line so they are genuine in every respect, they still can't be imported if they violate the trademark laws.  In other words, the only legitimate destination for those batteries would be Apple itself.  Because the manufacturer didn't have Apple's permission to use the trademarks for those side-stream batteries.
Fortunately trademark laws don't work that way. Please read more about it!
What is possible is to register a trademark in a country so other companies can not sell similar products under the same name. Usually this is done by importers. But that doesn't prevent others from importing (genuine) articles from that manufacturer. For sure importers try to prevent that (by spreading FUD) but they have no legal grounds to do so.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 
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Offline ChunkyPastaSauce

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Re: Apple & Customs STOLE Louis Rossmann batteries
« Reply #49 on: October 20, 2018, 08:06:23 pm »
Customs probably be sending samples and/or photographs of the batteries to Apple and Louis (assuming he follows procedure).  Before 2015 they only sent to trademark owner, who would give a yes/no on whether it's counterfeiter or not. Now customs gives the importer the ability to review evidence.

"(d) Disclosure to importer of unredacted photographs, images, and samples. CBP will disclose to the importer unredacted photographs, images, or an unredacted sample of imported merchandise suspected of bearing a counterfeit mark at any time after the merchandise is presented to CBP for examination. CBP may demand the return of the sample at any time. The importer must return the sample to CBP upon demand or at the conclusion of any examination, testing, or similar procedure performed on the sample."
 
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/19/133.21 part d   CBP=customs & border protection
 


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