Mama always said that some folks
just never learn, and we reckon there's plenty of wisdom to be had from that very statement. Year
after year, German police are
called in to raid select booths at CeBIT (
and IFA, to be fair), and yet again we've seen a booth cleared out at the request of powerful lawyers from a few companies you may have heard of. Word on the street has it that Apple, Siemens and Sisvel were all kvetching over patent infringements made by an unnamed company exhibiting at last week's show, and within an hour or so of the fuzz showing up, the whole thing was stripped and a hefty fine (€10,000) was levied. Unfortunately, the exact details of who was violating what remains clouded in mystery, but for whatever reason, we get the feeling that something extremely similar will be going down in Hannover next year. We blame KIRFers determination.
Updated: Turns out one of our editors at CeBIT saw this whole situation go down at the
FirstView booth. Within minutes the entire booth was surrounded by the Polizei, and though we tried to dig further on the situation our inability to speak German caused some communication issues so we decided it best to move on to the next craptablet on the floor. We will, however, always have the shot above to remember the confusing experience.
[Thanks, TheLostSwede]
posted March 7th 2010 2:02PM
kvetching - To complain persistently and whiningly. n. 1. A chronic, whining complainer.
For those not in the know.
Sean Connery, as always, is a wealth of knowledge.
@NeoJew
Obviously. How else would he be able to constantly be the defending champion on Celebrity Jeopardy?
@Sean Connery
Used in a sentence: "There is only one way to get your mother to stop kvetching...isn't that right Trebek!"
For those who 1) don't speak Yiddish, 2) don't live in NYC, or 3) are Mel Brooks fans? Hey, I'll take Yiddish over the garbage Brit slang that usually dominates engadget.
@Sean Connery
Good grief... the Apple patent lawsuits can't be overcome by physical barriers, either! There's a whole ocean between "Cupertino, California"* and Germany!
*just in case Apple files a lawsuit stating I can't use this city name to call where Apple is headquartered. I heard they're about to rename it Appletown, or Jobsland, or iCity.
@Sean Connery
PS. The Most Interesting Man in the World ain't got nothing on Sean Connery!
@Cash9007
What's Yiddish?
@onlymyrailgun
Sorry, I meant, can you give me an example so I can recognize it?
@shadowj0
you did notice there were THREE companies involved?
@Nicnac
Yeah, like Apple would want to be involved with Siemens and Sisvel in any part of this... right.
I'm sure there's a lawsuit in the works by Apple, suing Siemens and Sisvel for also applying for a lawsuit on similar terms.
As long as its just busting the blatant Chinese violations, I applaud this. Unfortunately, thanks to Apple's HTC lawsuit and the EU's political climate, I am ever more skeptical of this assumption. o_O
@Ducman69
Yeah, these companys never do raids in china were counterfeit, copyright, trademark and patent infringement is common
@OCEAN CLAK
'Cos if they do, the Chinese will send people in the middle of the night to sabotage their booths, or even worse, get the Chinese authorities involved.
@Ducman69
I'm more concerned with the ability of these companies to quickly summon the po-po and get these kinds of results. This action speaks volumes and is further testament to the ever-growing power of these multinationals (The Pirate Bay raid comes to mind). Whatever happened to the long drawn-out court patent issues? It seems the police are now tasked w/ making determinations as to infringement violations.
Well, they only get fined if they violate patents repeatedly, so just check last years busted booths and you might find the mysterious manufacturer...
Germans hate fruits lol
"Word on the street has it that Apple, Siemens and Sisvel were all kvetching over patent infringements made by an unnamed company"
i would like to know who is mysterion
Isn't he a Power Ranger?
@Professor Hubert J Farnsworth . nope, got it from the southpark episode. "The Coon"
Apple...how is that surprising? And they have the audacity to sue HTC?
@ChickenGod
and how is the HTC case relevant? Me thinks this chicken is under cooked.
@ChickenGod
Read it again. Apple, Siemens and Sisvel were complaining their patents had been infringed.
@ChickenGod Funny how you conveniently forgot the fact that Siemens and Sisvel were involved. Some of you guys kill me, lol.
@MrBeast I do dislike undercooked chicken. Hasta be just right....
But yeah I'm not sure why this guy brought that up...
Random Cronie: Mein Füher, zer are reports zat zis company "...." haz infringed on our trademahrks.
Stëvë Jöbs: CALL IN ZE A.S.S. (Apple Schutzstaffel) AND GET ZEM!
@Captain Underpants and the Bring
"ë" is not a german Umlaut. Nice try though.
Apple, Siemens and who???
@MikeZ
Sisvel.
@mnotme
Who the f*ck are Sisvel?
Well, they only get fined if they violate patents repeatedly, so just check last years busted booths and you might find the mysterious manufacturer...
@frauhottelmann accidental double post...
@frauhottelmann
Thank you very much for repeating yourself I wouldn't have understood your comment if I hadn't read it twice.
Thank you very much for repeating yourself I wouldn't have understood your comment if I hadn't read it twice.
@frauhottelmann
Accidental 36minutes apart?
@MacBandit Yeah, I do that on purpose, every 30 something minutes.
@MacBandit So, you must be an agent of the Department of Anti-Redundancy Department
@Cobra4455 Please don't resort to a Nazi comment just because it's in Germany. It's just ignorant and cheap.
@Cydoniac I wish engadget would stop deleting so many comments, they get downranked into oblivion quickly enough if offensive to the community.
Right now it looks like you're a crazy person bringing crap up out of the blue. =p
HAHA Apple desire it lool. What comes around goes around
but i feel sorry for the other companies
@oawalker I think you, above anyone else, has really understood the very basic facts surrounding this story. In fact, I think engadget will probably be knocking on your door to offer you a job for your superior ability to understand a story even beyond the facts that mere laypeople see when glancing at what's been reported. I applaud you.
@BigFatDuck
I don't even know what you just said...
@oawalker another mental midget rears its head.
@BigFatDuck lool ignore my comment
@oawalker
HA HA typical idiot. Learn to read before typing.
@oawalker
i applaud your self-deprecating sense of humor. i mean it. (laughing on one's floor.)
@jaffreywali I am not an idiot. I can read perfectly fine, i am a busy person and I was just skinning through it i didn't have to to read it properly. sorry for making 1 mistake you don't need to go on about it, if you even could read what i said before there is no need to comment, leave it and move on it life.
@oawalker You defend your intelligence by saying you were "skinning" through it. You are indeed a mental giant, sir.
@BigFatDuck
What, you mean, ignorance is punished here?
I love Engadget.
I could understand settling this is court.
But, Damn! A full blown raid?
These are not explosives we are talking about, just some underpowered plastic, that's all.
Why is everything blocked out? Is this just a fake pic? If so, I guess it's funny. If not, I'd like to know why engadget can't say who the company is and why they have been forced to leave that info out of the story.