CeBIT crackdown: 51 exhibitors busted for patent infringement

Apparently Meizu wasn't the only manufacturer to get a friendly visit from German police at this week's CeBIT tradeshow in Hanover. The word is that 51 different exhibitors got busted at the show for the patent infringement, with 180 law enforcement officers confiscating 68 moving boxes worth of gear. Primary offenses included Meizu-style MP3 / MP4 infringement, along with unregistered CD, DVD-R and DVD playback devices. All companies were informed of the rules before the tradeshow, and the warning we spotted at Meizu's booth (pictured above) should've probably served as a pretty good hint to these companies as well. China boasted the most offenders at 24, then it was Taiwan with 12, Germany with 9, and Poland, Netherlands and Korea with one a piece. Everybody else just isn't trying hard enough.

[Thanks, Mademoiselle Y]

[coffee @ Mar 6th 2008 12:45PM]

You forgot "shockingly", as in "shockingly, China boasted the most offenders".

Looks like the Polizei are finding their roots again.

[Nabil @ Mar 6th 2008 3:52PM]

Looks like the Polizei are finding their roots again.

Or maybe a Certain Mr. Steve Jobs gave the Polizei department new iMacs/iPods/iPhones.

[Andrew @ Mar 6th 2008 5:01PM]

What exactly is this about getting back to their roots? The German Police is an ordinary police force - or are you being racist?

[James Cameron @ Mar 6th 2008 12:49PM]

It's obvious China would've the most. They don't really have laws against it. Nothing to see here, more along.

[James Cameron @ Mar 6th 2008 1:04PM]

I must've been half asleep while typing that. Need edit button.

[tired @ Mar 6th 2008 12:55PM]

but there is nothing in the article about any of the exhibitors being busted... even the one who not cooperating was released after the interrogation or whatever the police did with him.

[maveric101 @ Mar 6th 2008 9:32PM]

they probably did it because they needed new phones...

(jk, don't get mad at me)

[tekdroid @ Mar 6th 2008 12:54PM]

I'm sure the Cebit organisers will wonder why attendance is far lower next year :p

[James Cameron @ Mar 6th 2008 3:23PM]

That's what sad about it. You won't get to see some cool stuff because of the stupid strict Patent law. Way to embarrassed the people there while they at it.

The biggest reason we aren't seeing some great stuff in the market because of the Patent laws.

[sixhundredtwentysix @ Mar 6th 2008 5:08PM]

@James Cameron

sure, sum ppl like me who bust our chops developing gud stuff, dnt get to earn our peanuts cos of cheapstakes like u who wudn know the difference btw ingenuineity and blind copying, even if it crawled up ur a** along side the pole of incompetancy( which on the other hand doesnt allow u to pay for wat u wanna use ) that is in to hold u straight enuf to write such posts.

makes me infer how important n satisfaying ur job must be.

[Johan S @ Mar 6th 2008 12:57PM]

LOL. China is pissed off for not getting any revenue themselves for gunpowder, the crossbow, rockets, seismometers, and paper money etc.

Just sayin'.

[Cunthor @ Mar 6th 2008 2:39PM]

You forgot toilet paper :)

[Gian @ Mar 6th 2008 12:58PM]

Wow...I thought it would have been 50 chinese companies and 2 against the Egyptian Lover for violating the chest hair and gold chain patent filed by Mr. T. Hmph, I guess there are surprises everywhere.

[SHoe @ Mar 6th 2008 1:16PM]

While the obvious knock-offs are one thing, I wonder how wide the net is cast?

To go to CeBIT, a company's army of lawyers must know the ins-and-outs of:

German Copyright Act
German Patent Act
German Design Act
German Semiconductor Protection Act
German trade Mark Act

...and then you of course must search all registered copyrights, patents, product designs, schematics of the 'topography of circuit boards', and trademarks of registered brands.

Of course, Germany is a signatory to all sorts of international agreements covering the same in other countries too - wonder how that affects thing?

This has gotten way out of hand. If iPhone knock-offs are the price to pay for loosening up our patent and copyright laws, I say so be it. Otherwise this entire process is becoming way to onerous for companies to deal with.

[tekdroid @ Mar 6th 2008 2:02PM]

SHoe sez:
If iPhone knock-offs are the price to pay for loosening up our patent and copyright laws...
----------
Except it's not about iPhne knock-offs at all (at least it doesn't seem to be from a design standpoint). From what they are saying it's mostly the good ol' tried-n-true mp3 and cd/dvd patents as well as the DVB patents (probably related to mp3 here too) covering lots of devices that implement these without license, not just audio.

If I'm not mistaken similar things happened last year too, tho this year it seems more severe, if memory serves.

[sixhundredtwentysix @ Mar 6th 2008 5:21PM]

no! its actually people like u who think they can get away with it.

dudes, i thought there were techies here, its techies out thr doing the real work in developing products that u oogle over. n its this average joe techie who gets peanuts for it, he doesnt own the patent, its his megre christmas bonus that is hit. supposedly some one of ur kind. he ist d mariah carey or sean connery whose income is marginally hit

y dnt ppl like u go live in china? thr u ll have all the copies( of hard work n labour ) that u can lay ur hands on....

[dukemang @ Mar 6th 2008 1:44PM]

Yeah, Christmas will be good for the families of the German Police next year.

[tekdroid @ Mar 6th 2008 2:03PM]

lol

[iii @ Mar 6th 2008 1:52PM]

thank you for putting TAIWAN seperatly from CHINA, we do not belong to CHINA.

[iruleu @ Mar 6th 2008 3:15PM]

Actually, Taiwan does belong to China, just not The People's Republic of China. Anyone saying otherwise is either arrogant or non-educated.

[n3rd @ Mar 6th 2008 3:09PM]

sort of like seperating the us and hawaii into different groups am i right

[//austin @ Mar 6th 2008 2:19PM]

So the polizei are trained in the laws regarding intellectual property?

In the US you'd at least have to prove the significant burden necessary to get an injunction or TRO.

[Blah @ Mar 6th 2008 5:28PM]

Duh, the Police 'execute' only, decisions are made by people who passed the bar. Same as in the US, use your brain.

[//austin @ Mar 6th 2008 6:01PM]

Right, I'm just confused because they're enforcing criminal statutes.

It still requires an order from the prosecutor about which products to seize, based on what patents/copyrights were infringed upon.

[Wwhat @ Mar 6th 2008 2:25PM]

And they were worried cebit would die.. well it'll die soon enough when the german POLIZEI is done with it

[NJ Brideau @ Mar 6th 2008 2:47PM]

doesn't this happen every year?

[Iridium @ Mar 6th 2008 3:03PM]

But I thought a lot of Engadget readers say that the Chinese do not steal a lot of patents.

Damn Germans, they are just being too hard on the poor chinese trying to bring iRover, Opple, and Sorny to the masses.

[AoMoe @ Mar 6th 2008 9:00PM]

CeBIT ZERO infringemen; seems like one less trade show.

[dvdivx @ Mar 7th 2008 12:30AM]

Well if the Germans want to make sure Cebit becomes irrelevant this is a fine way to do it. They could hold it in Dubai but just don't step on any pot before going there.

[Spamslurpee @ Mar 7th 2008 3:28AM]

I was at CeBIT yesterday, there are still hundreds of tiny Asian booths offering questionable goods. If you ignore the laws international trade was built upon, you're seriously hurting innovative companies in your own country, the EU and US alike. It's not a European thing, American authorities would do the same thing and shut them down. It's the openness of Europe compared to the USA concerning Chinese people and products that amplifies the problem..