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3. Case Study

Here is a case troubled with imitation filters that have actually caused a big maintenance problem of Komatsuwheel loader in China. A customer of six units Komatsu large-sized wheel loader had the engine seizure trouble, which the customer had to pay with the amount of the vehicles damages for repair reaching to US$400,000 since the root cause was attributable to the use of low quality oil filters purchased from imitation parts market as well as the use of low quality engine oil. Obviously, the oil filter could not remove impurities such as dirt and for- eign body contained in engine oil, which consequently could not lubricate inside the engine sufficiently and caused the engine seizure eventually.This is a very regrettable case that the customer of the wheel loaders had to pay such a big amount of repaircosts due to the use of a little bit inexpensive engine oil filters, for which the customer might think he could save money when he bought imitation filters and poor quality engine oil.Although this is the rare case that the poor quality of imitation parts was easily made visible since the problemoccurred relatively in a short period of time. It is important to recognize that there are so many potential dangers that may invisibly shorten machine life expectancy by using imitation parts. If you are using imitation parts at present, you are strongly recommended that you immediately stop using imitations and receive the periodical maintenance service available by an authorized distributor who always uses Komatsu Forklift genuine parts.Sometimes, you may see poor quality imitation parts with the same Komatsu logo on the package as you cansee on the labels for genuine parts. It would be a little bit hard for you to distinguish which is which on the mar- ket of imitation parts. Appearances can be deceiving. By their appearances, imitation parts can be looked alike the very genuine parts including Komatsu logo on the labels. But the real contents are low-end parts. What you must do to prevent potential safety hazards is to get genuine parts from an authorized distributor of Komatsu Forklift.

4. Copyright

The number of countries that maintains more strict control or severe crackdown on the products of an illegal copy has been increasing these days. The number of cases filing a lawsuit has been also increasing. The situation in China, copycat or look alike products are flooding the market and trademark owners and government agencies are having only limited success in their efforts to fight counterfeit goods.For your information, Japanese corporations representing awide range of industries such as electrical machinery, preci- sion instruments, automobiles, motorcycle and industrial equipment, with great concern about counterfeit products now growing every year in China, have urged related government officials of China to further cooperation by issuing new measures to crackdown imitations in an explanatory meeting recently held in China.We will be continuing to provide you with concrete cases concerning imitation parts as much as possible in theParts News from now on. We sincerely hope that our customer can always enjoy high quality of Komatsu forklift with long service life by your continued support as authorized distributor to secure customer’s satisfaction. At the same time, we assure you that Komatsu Forklift is committed to maintaining the “Customer First” principle as the basis of its corporate vision.