News

What to do about product piracy at exhibitions?

Product piracy is a disruptive economic factor which must not be underestimated. The ZVEI offers its member companies help and support in effectively combating intellectual property rights infringements at exhibitions.

The ZVEI helps companies to take action against infringement of proprietary rights. © Erwin Wodicka

Business contacts are usually made at exhibitions. Manufacturers of comparable products compete with each other to attract potential customers. This contest is initially normal and stimulates business. The German electrotechnical and electronics industry has emerged particularly innovatively from this situation.

It is quite a different matter however when product pirates enter into this competition. By copying innovative solutions or designs of the original manufacturer they save themselves substantial research and development costs. By means of debasing the material and processing quality and the product safety, such counterfeits can then be offered on the market at a much lower cost than the original. It repeatedly happens that product pirates even appear at exhibitions in direct competition with the originals of their counterfeits. This requires rapid action on the part of the original manufacturer. Because the danger of a massive loss of orders is particularly great in the temporal, spatial and thematically close competition at an exhibition event.

The ZVEI therefore offers its member companies assistance in combating any cases of product piracy specifically for exhibition events.

ZVEI-Flyer “What to do about product piracy at exhibitions?”

The ZVEI flyer “What to do about product piracy at exhibitions? – Assistance of the ZVEI in the effective combating of intellectual property rights infringements at exhibitions” contains initial information on the subject of product piracy. It is intended to raise awareness of the subject and present the options for action at exhibitions. Further information on the subject of product piracy and intellectual property rights can be obtained from the ZVEI commercial law experts.

The ZVEI as a contact partner

In addition to general information, the ZVEI offers itself as the first point of contact in cases of infringements and questions of intellectual property rights - including outside of exhibitions. At the special request of the responsible ZVEI division, the commercial law experts will enable an extended availability during exhibition time.

Support with concrete measures – the ZVEI emergency legal service

Concrete measures against product piracy can only be instituted by the holder of the infringed right. Although the ZVEI therefore lacks the so-called active legitimation required, it can nevertheless provide support in initiating concrete measures. At exhibitions in particular, the greatest urgency is always indicated in cases of product piracy. At the special request of the responsible ZVEI division, the commercial law experts will therefore provide a ZVEI emergency legal service tailored to the relevant exhibition: Selected legal practitioners on the exhibition site respond immediately to cases of infringement together with the company concerned, and if necessary put a stop to the infringements during the exhibition by means of interim injunction. The use of emergency legal service takes place at the cost of the company concerned.

ZVEI members can order the flyer free of charge as a printed copy (available only in German language).

You may also be interested in:

Further
Most visited pages

Publications

Read more

Industry

Read more

Mobility

Read more

Energy

Read more

Health

Read more
 
NOA - Mastering the complexity of connectivity | ZVEI

NAMUR Open Architecture enables a secure second channel for collecting vital data which are necessary for monitoring and…

 
MTP - The Age of Modular Production | ZVEI

Module Type Package is the core of modular production. Modular automation enables particularly fast and efficient engineering of…

 
DC-INDUSTRIE at the Hannover Fair 2020

In the DC-INDUSTRIE2 project and the predecessor project DC-INDUSTTRIE, research has been conducted since 2016 with companies from…

DC-INDUSTRIE

DC-INDUSTRIE: Hannover Messe 2019

Together with its partners in the DC-INDUSTRIE project, ZVEI is developing network management options for the future. The motto:…

 

5G-ACIA

Designing 5G for Industrial Use

5G allows machines to communicate with each other in real time, saving resources and energy through Edge Computing and Massive…