Iomega HK fights counterfeit hardware

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By Stephen Lawson

(IDG) -- Iomega, the U.S. maker of personal storage devices, is facing a problem in Hong Kong that software makers have grappled with for years: counterfeit products.

A growing number of unauthorized Iomega drives, especially the 100M-byte and 250M-byte Zip removable-disk drives, are appearing on sale in the territory, Iomega said in a statement Wednesday.

The company announced it is working with authorities in Hong Kong to crack down on the sale of the counterfeit products and has introduced a laser holographic label to go on the boxes of all official Iomega products here. Iomega's country manager said an investigation is under way to determine who is selling the unauthorized products and the company cannot reveal any more information about the effort at this time.

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"We are getting support from the Hong Kong authorities, so we hope this investigation will continue," said Richard Lim, country manager of Iomega and Asia South.

The company started using the holographic label about two months ago, Lim said.

Unauthorized sales have also been identified in mainland China, where a similar label is now used to identify legitimate products. The company is looking for similar problems in the region as a whole, Lim added.

The counterfeit drives, which may be sold at a discount, were manufactured by Iomega but are not covered by Iomega's warranty and support, Lim said. There are only two authorized distributors of Iomega products in Hong Kong, Gennett International and Tech Pacific.

Although counterfeiting of the company's products is increasing now, it is not a new problem.

"It's an age-old problem," Lim said.

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