Chinese city orders two fake Apple Stores to close
A pedestrian uses his cell phone as he walks past a fake Apple store in Kunming, Yunnan province July 21, 2011. A fake Apple store in China, made famous by a blog that said even the staff working there didn't realise it was a bogus outlet, is probably the most audacious example to date of the risks Western companies face in the booming Chinese market. The less-publicised phenomenon of unauthorised vendors setting up shop to peddle real products has grown alongside China's manufacturing prowess. Many of the factories that produce brand-name goods on contract have been known to do extra runs of the goods to make extra cash, analysts say. Picture taken July 21, 2011. Reuters

Apple has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S against fake identical Apple stores in China.

The lawsuits have been filed against 50 individuals and 3 companies which allegedly copied its retail outlets including the products, the design of the store and the uniform of the employees.

One of the stores in Kumming had the logo and the badges of Apple as well, though the badges didn't have the employees' name in it and the store had “Apple Store” written in its sign unlike the original Apple stores.

Several fake outlets were discovered in China, after the first one was hunted out by the American Blogger Bird Abroad.

However the lawsuit is sealed and the exact nature of it is not known, whether it targets the elaborate overseas operations.

It's possible that Apple does not yet know who runs those stores, and could be included in the 50 anonymous John Does that are named as defendants with no attorney listed, AppleInsider reports.

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