Bendix Takes Fight to Importers of Counterfeit Products

Bendix will aggressively pursue suppliers of counterfeit products, said Joe McAleese, president & CEO of Bendix at the Mid-America Trucking Show.
McAleese said most of the trucking-related counterfeit goods Bendix encounters are manufactured in China and other parts of Asia. Although foreign governments, including China, are helping Bendix shut down counterfeit manufacturing sites in their countries, the operations often re-open quickly in different locations. He says the focus will be on pursuing those who import the goods, rather than those who produce them, as facilities open up faster than they can be shut down.
“Counterfeits and knockoff parts continue to flood the North American market at an alarming rate, so we plan to continue emphasizing our intellectual property and brand protection efforts and…pursue legal action where warranted against infringement of either one,” he said during a press conference here at the Mid-America Trucking Show.
“Once we bring the issue of fake goods to their attention, most importers do the right thing to cease and desist their activity; we rarely need to go to court. We’ve only had to pursue two with civil proceedings.”
Although the company has managed to prevent knockoff-related losses in market share and considers the situation stable, McAleese acknowledged that counterfeit parts are becoming very hard to identify visually.
“We haven’t yet faced an accident caused by a counterfeit part, but that’s our fear,” he added. “Visual appearance is so similar to our goods even our engineers can’t tell them apart until we break them down and test them. That’s when you see significant differences, especially in terms of poor performance.”