Led by a lawyer named Liu Jianguo, more than 30 consumers from different areas of China have gathered and plan to file a joint lawsuit against Chinese computer maker Hasee, who has reportedly been using fake Centrino chips on four types of laptop computers.
The four types of Hasee laptop computers are the Chengyun W740T, W750T, W735T and B740G. All of them have a Centrino logo on both the exterior and interior sides of them.
According to Dong Shuncheng, a student from China Agriculture University who bought a Chengyun B740G, he was told by the seller that this computer had been installed with Sonoma, the second generation of Intel's Centrino chip, but he learned from the Internet about the fake Centrino news and decided to have his computer checked. Dong says that he downloaded software from Intel's official website to test the so-called Centrino on his computer and results showed it was not an Intel chip.
The consumers have contacted Hasee's dealers and reported the problem to their respective local departments of industry and commerce as well as consumer associations, but their requests were not satisfactorily handled. They then joined Liu Jianguo, a lawyer who began to work on finding the fake Centrino-based Hasee laptop computer users in July 2006 and who is willing to provide pro bono work for these consumers. Liu said that he had collected enough evidence for the case and he was confident that they would win the case.
The Hasse side says that they have never fixed any Centrino logo to their computer and they have no idea where these logos come from. The dealers of Hasse computers still insist that the four types of computer adopted correct Centrino chips, but they claim that all the goods are directly delivered from the manufacturers and they themselves won't stick the Centrino logo on the computers.
There is no word yet when a court date will be set.