A Sort of Tribute

From Manila to Bangkok these days, anyone who needs a tube of toothpaste has his choice of a baker's dozen of red-and-white packaged brands with remarkably similar names: Coalgate, Goalgate, Goldkey, Goldcat and Goldrat. The fact that all these ring like the name of the world's bestselling toothpaste--Colgate--is no coincidence. With the indulgent tolerance of Asian governments, most notably in Formosa, hustling commercial pirates are cashing in all over the Far East by duplicating U.S. consumer products--at least on the outside.

The look-alike brands, which usually sell for less than half the price of the U.S. original, cover a wide spectrum. They include Yalf locks, N & N chocolates, Del Mundo catsup, Pang's (Pond's) cold cream, Sehnring (Schering) drugs, and no fewer than five imitations--Hotex, Potex, Katex, Mytex and Nestex--of another familiar U.S. product.

The piracy costs U.S. companies several millions a year in lost sales, but some U.S. businessmen in the Far East consider it a backhanded tribute to the competitive strength of U.S. goods. Confesses one Formosan drug maker: "If our product does not look like the U.S. original, we cannot sell it."

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