I have been manufacturing and importing automotive aftermarket parts from China and Taiwan for over 20 years and I will try and explain how this happens and has happened to us. As far as SM is concerned this is 100% a mistake from the overseas supplier. The supplier was NEVER supposed to engrave the Broader Performance trademark on the product that they shipped to SM. It is obvious that this product was sent by someone to China to be copied, it most probably was SM but it could have been someone else. Under no circumstanced does SM ever want someone else's trademark on their product, it is a legal nightmare. Now how could this happen:
1- SM sent the product to be copied and the idiot supplier copied everything including the logo and shipped it to them. It would be exceedingly rare for something like this to happen as when you send a product to China to be copied you always get a sample from the supplier to test out and then approve before the final shipment. It is very common to get a sample that needs improvement or fixes before it is ready for production. You usually will not approve a new product without seeing an exact sample and testing it before you commit to a batch of them. Remember that factories have minimums, and it is usually in the hundreds if not thousands of pieces. This is a big investment and I am sure this is not a cheap part to make, even in China. If the logo was on the original sample it would have been removed from a later sample before the sample was authorized for production. They still could screw it up as they made one with the logo the first time, but I have never had this personally happen to us.
2- This was an off the shelf product from a Chinese manufacturer. Almost every factory in China has a catalog of "off the shelf" product and most of it is just copied product from some reputable manufacturer. It is just product that others have sent them to copy and they can manufacture at any point in time. SM just bought this as an off the shelf product that is in their catalog. For this to happen someone else sent this product to be copied, it had already been made and tested by someone else. This someone else may be copying this product using the Broader Performance name and selling it overseas as the real thing, where the US trademark laws would either not apply or be very difficult and costly to enforce, or they may be bringing this product to the USA and selling it on eBay or other online websites without anyone knowing it is a counterfeit. This product is usually manufactured with the Broader Performance name on it. SM would still have probably ordered a sample and tested it, it may have even come with the Broader Performance name on it, but they would have told the supplier to remove the name for them. The supplier just made a mistake and shipped them the product with the logo as this is how they usually manufacture the product.
It is more likely than not that SM knew that the product came in with the Broader name on it. Usually when we get receive new product we grab one from the fist batch and take a look at it, mostly to take photos of it and to make sure that it looks right. SM may not have ever opened a box and started just shipping them without knowing the Broader name was on it. Although that could happen the most likely scenario is that they received a batch of "x amount of pieces" with the Broader name on it and they just decided to take a chance and send them out there hoping no one would notice. I am sure that this has happened before to them and that is what they may have done before. When you get product like this you have 2 choices, sell it as is and hope the trademark owner does not get wind of it, or throw it in the trash and take a huge loss. The factory in China will probably not do anything for you.
We have had this happen to us a couple of times when we were starting out. We ordered off the shelf China product and it came with the original manufactures logo. We never ordered the product with the logo, but they screwed up. I will not go into it, but it does happen and it is a mess you do not want to be in. You either destroy the product and lose a ton of money or you risk selling it and hope no one notices. The fact that SM sent photos to Summit that do not show the logo leads me to believe that they knew the product had the Broader name on it and they just photoshopped it off. Usually when you get your first batch of product is when you take photos of it for your website, online auction sites, and send them to your wholesalers. There is a small chance that the photos are from an earlier sample that did not have the Broader name on it or from photos the supplier sent them without the logo, but no matter how it happened I can assure everyone that SM never intended to sell the product as a counterfeit, they just wanted to sell a copy of it which is totally legal.
