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The Finance Base
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Fake NEC Company Allegedly Found, EE Times Reported in 2006

A 2006 EE Times account summarized allegations that a counterfeit company had adopted NEC’s identity and marketed a reported portfolio of about 50 products.

By TheFinanceBase Team 2 min read
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A May 2006 EE Times article reported on an alleged counterfeit company that had appropriated NEC’s corporate identity and brand—not merely copied individual electronic devices. The account summarized a report in the International Herald Tribune; the allegations and details below are attributed to that reporting, not presented as independently verified findings.

What the 2006 report said

Peter Clarke’s May 4, 2006, EE Times article summarized an International Herald Tribune report about an alleged counterfeit NEC company. According to the account, the operation was based mainly in China and appeared to be controlled by entities in Japan and Taiwan. The report said the alleged company came to light after two years of investigation, but the article did not describe the investigation’s methods or identify those entities.

The story concerned the alleged appropriation of an entire company identity and brand. It was not limited to counterfeit versions of particular NEC products.

Products and reported business activity

The alleged company reportedly had a portfolio of about 50 counterfeit products. EE Times listed home entertainment systems, MP3 players, batteries, microphones and DVD players. It also reported that the operation copied NEC products and developed some products that were not part of NEC’s legitimate range. A 2007 EE Times retrospective repeated the approximate portfolio count and examples.

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The 2006 article said the alleged company awarded manufacturing contracts and licensed Chinese companies to use its designs, all under the NEC brand. Those activities were reported allegations; the sources do not establish them through a court finding or provide underlying contracts.

What NEC’s legal executive said—and what remained undisclosed

EE Times quoted Fujio Okada, whom the article identified as NEC’s senior vice president and general manager of its legal division, describing the entities as “part of a sophisticated ring, coordinated by two key entities based in Taiwan and Japan, which has attempted to completely assume the NEC brand.” This was an attributed statement, not an independent determination of the alleged entities’ conduct.

The article said NEC declined to identify the alleged offenders for legal reasons and could not estimate the value of goods sold by the operation. The available accounts do not establish the entities’ names, sales total, any court outcome or what happened to the operation after publication. The figure of about 50 products is an approximate count reported by EE Times, not an independently audited inventory.

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Why this was more than ordinary product counterfeiting

Counterfeiting often means copying or mislabeling individual goods. In this account, the allegation went further: the company was said to have used NEC’s identity to present a portfolio under the brand, arrange manufacturing and license designs. That distinction describes the scope of the reported allegation; it does not resolve who controlled the operation or establish its legal status.

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