German Customs raids over 50 booths at IFA looking for patent infringements
By Nilay Patel 
posted August 29th 2008 7:32PM
posted August 29th 2008 7:32PM
We've got our crack team of Engadget ninjas at IFA working to figure out exactly what's going on, but early word is that over 220 German Customs agents have raided the show looking for patent infringements. It's not clear how many booths have had visits from The Man, but it's somewhere over 50 -- we've been hearing a number in the 70s -- and spokespeople for Customs says inspections will continue until tonight. Sounds like a repeat of what's happened at CeBIT for the past few years, where German firm Sisvel has had several companies' booths shut down and products seized over claimed MPEG patent infringements -- you might remember last year's kerfuffle with Meizu and the wrongful seizure of SanDisk DAPs in 2006. There are rumors that Asian companies, including MSI, are being targeted, and that the Taiwan Image Hall in particular was hit hard, but nothing's been substantiated and German authorities say they're looking at all companies equally. We'll let you know what's going down as soon as we find out more.[Thanks, Adam]
Insert German joke here:
es war ein mall ein archloch names RD. der hate nen kleinen penis und hatte nen groosen maul dan kam sein papa und sagte hey RD. kan ich mein pimel in dein maul stecken blabla blabl a dan kam blut raus und when ehr es nicht gelutcht hat dan wher nie ein guter sohn ende
US Customs, even the FBI, regularly visit trade shows in the USA, especially on the Left Coast looking for similar things. Visitors from China can wind up seeing "His Honor" in the morning.
LOL @ Goog;e Translate
it was a mall a archloch names RD. ing hate the small penis and had nen groosen maul dan his papa came and said hey RD. can I get my pimel stuck in your maul blabla blabl a dan blood came out and when it is not honest gelutcht dan wher has never been a good son end
I'd settle for a good Col. Klink impression
SISVEL is Italian and not German... but they instrumentalize German Customs and Police (public money paid by Germans) to enforce their rights... too bad! Thanks to all of those companies and those working for them which infringe those laws though...!
I wonder if they have brought in the trained German shepherds to sniff out patent infringements.
P.S. Patel, you spelled infringements incorrectly.
FIREFOX FTW!
lame - its been fixed.
GG
Did you mean the dog breed "German Shepherd" or some German sheep herders?
This is a bad tactic and if continues to gain ground, then developers will not want to go in case they are accussed, even wrongfully.
This is bad PR even if you believe something is wrong. That is why we have courts. Police should not get involved at this level. Now if this was a court order, due to a pending lawsuit, then I understand, but currently it seems like "I was just checking" big brother style.
Is it unlawful for conceptual work or does it have to be a selling product? If I made a proof of concept of an iPod clone that even plays itunes DRM, is it illegal just because I made it or do I have to sell it to make a commercially available product worthy of a lawsuite? Ity seems that until Meizu sells thier product, it is not illegal. I am not a lawyer which is why I am asking.
M
exactly, these people are not the show to sell goods but to make business contacts. Patents are a CIVIL matter and removing businesses from the show without a chance to prove whether they infringe or not is highly suspect use of police services. The proper place for this is at the loading dock when products ship into the country. These trade shows are "academic" at best showing businesses what is available to buy, they are using the police to manage private contract negotiations by pointing out "infringements" that may or may not be true. This is government corruption at it's finest.
This is a bad tactic and if continues to gain ground, then developers will not want to go in case they are accussed, even wrongfully.
This is bad PR even if you believe something is wrong. That is why we have courts. Police should not get involved at this level. Now if this was a court order, due to a pending lawsuit, then I understand, but currently it seems like "I was just checking" big brother style.
Is it unlawful for conceptual work or does it have to be a selling product? If I made a proof of concept of an iPod clone that even plays itunes DRM, is it illegal just because I made it or do I have to sell it to make a commercially available product worthy of a lawsuite? Ity seems that until Meizu sells thier product, it is not illegal. I am not a lawyer which is why I am asking.
M
i think you did not understand WHY police gets in there... please inform yourselves before giving such comments!
New double post feature by Engadget? (Why does it not remember me?)
M
All part of the great new system.
Presenting The Great Marvo, and his Disappearing, Reappearing Posts!
What, do they have a big book o' patents with them that they browse through for each product, to check that it doesn't infringe one of them? Or do they have some crazy guy with an extraordinary ability to memorize all patents?
No.
Sisvel has alerted the german authorities that some companies have patent infringing hardware on display. Sisvel became the exclusive reseller for MPEG DVB-T licenses (worldwide?) just three days ago: (see http://www.sisvel.com/pressrelease-DVBT-29082008.pdf ) - so they should know who has paid the license fee and who didn't - so it's just a matter of comparing two lists (licensees and IFA exhibitors)
Throw all the damnable patent trolls into the mix and this kind of practice could become disastrous.
A Patent troll is already in the mix. Google Sisvel.
Buck dich.
Umlauts FTW... bück Dich
What a bunch of Deutschebags.
http://www.heise.de/bilder/115126/0/1
Maybe they were really just looking for booth babes
I don't even understand why Sisvel is making these claims. Everything I read online shows that they are one of a handful of companies CLAIMING to own the patents to Mpeg audio.
And Nilay, Sivel isn't German, they are Italian. It's all very weird, because nothing in the development of mpeg audio points to anything Sisvel or its partners did to develop the technology. I'm really curious why they can get away with making the Germans do all this hard work for them...
http://www.sisvel.com/pressrelease-DVBT-29082008.pdf
They became the exclusive and official MPEG license distributor three days ago. That's why the german authorities are forced by law to act.
@skoops; that pdf has nothing to do with MPEG. That one is about DVB-T licenses.
Sisvel has been after MPEG audio patent violators for years. I still don't get the German link, especially since it's the German Fraunhofer institute that actually invented it, and they have asked Thomson to handle licensing for them, not Sisvel.
Sisvel had nothing to do with developing the technology (from what I can tell).
the answer is pretty easy: the german police has to search for fakes and cases of patent fraud....
@ScOObyDoo: did you read the pdf? DVB-T is a MPEG patent pool - the MPEG LA (License Administration) has transferred all patent rights to sisvel 3 days ago, that's what the pdf says
@Skoops. No it IS NOT. DVB-T is the European terrestrial video standard, it has zilch to do with Mpeg Audio. The patent pool only refers to the patents related to DVB-T, and nothing else. Sisvel has claimed ownership of mpeg audio for years.
And in this case, the MPEG-LA doesn't even OWN any (or ever did own) MPEG Audio licenses.
From what I can tell here, these companies seem to own a tiny patent that may (or may not) be related to the technology in question, and make their money by selling it to people like Sisvel who think they then have the right to sue anyone they want. At the moment there are three different parties trying to collect revenue for mpeg audio...
At least it's an ethos
Comment of the day!
excluding MPEG-related video stuff, perhaps some of the manufacturers could look into:
http://www.vorbis.com
http://flac.sourceforge.net
...if they want to offer superior patent-free audio codecs.
No kidding, right? I really don't understand why people accept outdated audio codecs.
"crack team of Engadget ninjas at IFA" also known as = guys who don't have GF's but have a G.I. Joe Kung Fu grip.
Patents are made for Bitchin.
Was it just customs or a joint task force?
Obey.
There are more details in the german heise newsticker - http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Zoll-auf-Beschlagnahmetour-Update--/meldung/115126 - it was a joint taskforce of (nearly) 200 custom agents + german federal police raiding 69 IFA booths.
I never read such a pile of shi*.
1. Sisvel is by no means a German company. Checkout sisvel.com for details.
2. As far as it concerns German customs: they've raided exactly those booths Sisvel told them too. That's at least what they told us while dismounting our products. For obvious reason I don't like the guys but claiming that the raids have anything to do with ethnical reasons is the dumbest thing I ever heard.
I agree. The whole thing was completely unethnical.
This is yet another example why patent holders who are not actually producing a real product should have their patent forcibly made PD. Also, this should be a civil matter, and it should be entirely the business of Sisvel to prove who they suspect are violating patents - it should not be a criminal matter. If you are holding a patent - do something with it - down with patent trolls and their entire business model I say - it has zero benefit to society, and therefore the law should be stacked against it, not in its favour.
Hehe, the German article on Heise says in the end, Sisvel got the job because the MPEG LA is impressed with Sisvel's abilities to collect money. I see a picture of Marlon Brando sending some thugs to get the job done. The latter, unlike in the film, are obviously German in this case... ;)
More booths were raided: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Beschlagnahmetour-des-Zoll-geht-weiter-Update--/meldung/115183
How much did these companies pay to get these booths only to get a German version of the TSA treatment up the waz?