> board vendor info: third party grafics adapter - NOT original ATI
> When turning the laptop around I read: Made in China.
> Most probably there is replica hardware in it, isn't it?

Nope. Few people have the resources to copy _silicon_ and ATI would sue
that Thinkpad off the market if it contained a copy of an ATI chip.

The reason you see this message is simply that the hardware and
firmware configuration for the graphics subsystem in your laptop are
customized by IBM. You would only see "original ATI" if you were
working with an actual _card_ manufactured by ATI end-to-end. You'll
never see this on a laptop.