Editing Clone (section)

===Clone vs fake===
Clone products do not purport to be the product that they are based on. Although Alps clone switches and similar products have frequently been mistaken for Alps products (and in fact less common genuine Alps products have been mistaken for clones), almost none of these non-Alps products are claiming to have been produced by Alps, and very few are even the same shape as Alps switches. The situation with Cherry MX is a little less clear, as some clones are exactly the same shape as real Cherry switches.

Counterfeit switches are rare. Two documented examples of potentially fake switches are OA2 derivatives, and [[Aristotle Yellow]]. Examination of Aristotle suggests that they're formed from various combinations of real and replica parts, but this is not certain. What is clear is that some upper shells have Cherry logos and other moulding details that are very suspect and do not match anything known to have come from Cherry factories. These switches are in fake, in that regardless of how the parts were assembled, they did not originate from any Cherry factory in that form, while clearly bearing Cherry branding.

[[Simplified Alps Type III]] is a derivative of [[alps.tw Type OA2]], where genuine Alps upper shells have been used in order to give the resemblance of genuine Alps, and these are in effect fake Alps switches, as internally they use standard Alps clone parts, concealed by exterior features that resemble genuine Alps parts. [[alps.tw Type OA1]] appears to be a related example where the top shell was custom moulded to directly mimic Alps SKCM switches, making them also fake.