Counterfeit bike parts are a genuine blight on the trade. Low-quality copies of properly engineered components are bad for everyone: they undermine the manufacturer, costing it money and reputation and they’re bad for the consumer too, at the very least, by reducing performance and, in the worst cases, affecting safety. The only winners are the cheats, who copy parts and bypass quality checks purely for profit.
GBRacing is one of the latest victims of counterfeits: copies of its FIM-approved engine case covers have sprung up worldwide, made from poorer materials with correspondingly reduced protection and worse fit. So on World Anti-counterfeiting Day (8 June), the firm underlined its commitment to combating counterfeits.
Graham Banks, GBRacing MD, said: “Without a doubt, counterfeit goods are a huge challenge this year. It affects not only us as an engineering company but also our entire network of dealers and our loyal customers. Whilst the copied products may look the same, the counterfeits are made from significantly inferior material that will not stand up in the event of a crash. Be it a high-side, where all the force will be transferred into the engine, potentially causing cracks on impact, or a low side, where the road surface will wear through the counterfeit cover in a matter of milliseconds.”
GBRacing has also commissioned brand protection specialist firm Corsearch to investigate bogus online retailers. In just six months, thousands of counterfeit GBRacing listings were reported worldwide and quickly removed. Thanks to the proactive approach of this partnership, Corsearch has achieved an impressive success rate just short of 90%.
That work has a financial cost, though: in 2023, GBRacing spent nearly £30k on intellectual property protection through the EU Intellectual Property Office and Corsearch, with legal fees on top. That work even included a court case in Indonesia to cancel a fake ‘bad faith’ registration of the GBRacing brand.
Tim Banks, business development director at GBRacing, added, “This year, we are determined to turn the tide against counterfeit products and to do this, we’ve called in the professionals. Corsearch, being an international IP specialist, is able to leverage its size, connections and expertise to remove listings en masse at what seems like the click of a button. We are pleased with the work they have been doing, and will continue to do, to clean up the marketplace.”