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An investigation into the source of counterfeit NEC goods has uncovered an entire NEC-branded company set up by pirates.

As well as pirating existing NEC products, such as keyboards and blank CD/DVD media, the fake NEC was also working on its own range of items that included MP3 players and home entertainment centres.

A private investigation carried out by International Risk found that a bogus NEC brand had been set up in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, with more than 50 factories churning out 'NEC products'.

Police raids following the two-year investigation found that the people running the factories had fake NEC business cards and some of the buildings even carried NEC signage.

Products were sent out in official-looking NEC boxes and the company even charged royalties to license its products.

The alert was first raised in 2004 when NEC's Tokyo office was warned that a number of products bearing the company's logo were being sold in shops in Hong Kong and Beijing.

However, fake NEC goods were also later found to be on sale in Taiwan, China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe and North Africa.

NEC has not yet named the companies responsible and said it would continue to collect evidence in the case.

The company expects to take civil action against some of the counterfeiters, while negotiating with other companies.