Hi-tech processes are the norm as copycats become more sophisticated
For the executives of Golden Glass, it was like going the wrong way on a moving walkway.
The company's share of the market for fire-rated glass, which can resist unusually high temperatures, had slipped to 50 per cent from 80 per cent over five years, despite growing acclaim for its products, specified by name in many building tenders.
'In the end, our people discovered that there were buildings using fire-rated glass with the Golden Glass brand, but which had never placed orders with us,' said sales manager Alvin Kwong Wan-keung.
'Mainland competitors were making counterfeit products using our brand and charging at least 50 per cent less than we did.'
In a country as big as China, even such blatant violations of intellectual property rights can be hard to stamp out.
