Faking It

Silk Alley in Beijing was probably the world's most infamous market for fake consumer goods. Located within sight of the U.S. embassy, the noisy outdoor warren of stalls became such a magnet for foreign tourists that Lonely Planet's guidebook to Beijing suggests backpackers shop there for Gucci handbags, Nike sneakers and a host of other designer products, few of them authentic but most so meticulously duplicated by Chinese manufacturers that no one could tell the difference. "Silk Alley" was also the bane of trademark lawyer Joe Simone. As the top foreign anticounterfeiting lobbyist in China, Simone had for years urged senior...