I suspect that the Arduino Uno board I just bought only is a counterfeit. I'm not completely familiar with such legal aspect, so I'd like to have a confirmation.
My guess is that 1/ the 501K component is not genuine, 2/ it was not made in Italy, so they should not be allowed to advertise as an Arduino TM, am I right ?
I bought it on a rather popular RC online shop; not an ebay anonymous seller ...
it is generally agreed that the genuine Arduino (UNO) exclusively uses a gold-coloured Polyswitch, apparently a "special order" component, and that the green one is therefore indicative of a counterfeit.
Arduino is shipping boards that are dramatically different than the ones shipped just a few months ago; the polyswitch could now be a different color. The Arduino folks will obviously be in a position to know if the board is counterfeit which is why I asked @wazari972 to contact Arduino.
And you imagine they did not already know?
Are you suggesting that the Arduino folks are already aware of a counterfeit board @wazari972 just purchased?
Well if that is the case, they sure better get a shuffle on and update the official Website to that effect, or they are going to have a lot of unhappy customers!
While it is not the only focus of their interest, I am suggesting that "counterfeits" are in themselves by no means a new phenomenon (ergo the page I cite), nor does wazari972 suggest that his source is a "fly-by-night" operation or that they have suddenly switched from providing "genuine" to "non-genuine" articles, so I would expect the Arduino folks will have noted that supplier already and likely some time ago, either by simply reviewing the Web or even making the odd test purchase if the matter were that far in doubt.
Whether they can do anything about it in regards to a supplier in China (Hong Kong) - that was my point.