DAMA HID Bulb Vs. The Fake!

We finally achieved the ultimate distinction in automotive bulb industry. Our DAMA HID Xenon bulbs finally have a counterfeit bulb in the market! One of the customers who purchased DAMA D3S called and told us about this phenomenon and when we saw the actual counterfeit product online, we frankly didn't know if we should be happy (That DAMA products are being recognized) or be pissed-off mad (That, DAMA products are getting slandered by these counterfeiting bandits) So, we ordered the counterfeit product and put it to a test against our DAMA D3S HID bulbs.

Marketing products are a difficult task and often comes with a high percentage of failure rate. Large companies like Philips and Osram spend millions of dollars a year marketing their products. Not at their level yet, but HID Concept spends significant amount every year in marketing, researching and developing. Unfortunately, there are some bandits our there always looking for a cheap way to compromise other's hard work. In legal term, this is called, "trade dressing." It's a practice of making a product that has the visual appearance of another well-known product or its packaging that signify the source of the product to consumers. Let's put aside the ethical issue aside. This is not only hurting genuine products, but also duping the consumers.

Just with any other industries, Automotive lighting industry shares a whole bunch of these counterfeit problems. There are few things that the consumers can act to prevent from getting caught in this dark web. For one, HID Concept is an authorized reseller for Philips North America. Simply, go to https://www.usa.philips.com/c-m-au/car-lights/where-to-buy/retailers and you can find our name on the list. Osram is a bit different. Since Sylvania is the North America division of Osram, but do not carry any automotive bulbs with "Osram" label and have few choices as to our European counterpart, we import directly from the source. Fortunately, one of the best authenticity verification is done by Osram's performance HID bulbs like Night Breaker Laser and Cool Blue Advance. They have 7 digit Trust code sticker on the package. By entering the 7 digit code at www.osram.com/trust, a set of number appears that matches the number on the bulb. So, what did we do to protect our DAMA products and our customers? At HID Concept, we took this step with a bit of personal touch. All DAMA products come with Authenticity hologram sticker with a unique serial number. When the DAMA products get sold, the serial number is logged in with the customer's information. In essence, we link the bulb to the customer. 

As long as there are quality products made, trade dress and counterfeit products are unavoidable. That being said, trade dressing is nothing more than stealing someone else's intellectual property and the counterfeit products are just downright wrong and with the automotive products, it is simply dangerous. For some profit motivation, these bandits are disregarding people safety and are just irresponsible. As long as we are in business, HID Concept will not sit idly and watch this shenanigan.