March 8, 2008
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The police in Germany say they have raided the exhibition booths of at least 51 companies suspected of
displaying pirated software and products at the very popular annual electronics show CeBIT 2008, which runs
through Sunday in Hannover, Germany.
Overall, more than 180 policemen and customs officials participated in the well-orchestrated raid. They
removed no less than sixty-eight cartons filled with devices, documents and various advertising material.
The electronic devices that were allegedly in violation of patent rights were MP-3, MP-4 or digital video
players, DVD players and blank CDs and DVDs.
Twenty-four of the booths were reportedly set up by companies from China, 15 by companies from Taiwan or
Hong Kong, nine by German companies and the rest by companies from Poland, the Netherlands and Korea.
Last year, Sisvel (The Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell'Elettronica) focused on enforcing the MPEG audio patents that it licenses to major American companies
such as SanDisk and to Aigo and to Huawei Technologies in China.
The raid at CeBIT 2008 was conducted at the request of Sisvel, German police said. A member of the Italian
Association for Industrial Research, Sisvel was founded by engineer Roberto Dini, and has been developing and
managing new patent licenses in consumer electronics for 25 years.
Sisvel enforces exclusive worldwide rights to aspects of the MP3 and MPEG file formats on behalf of large
companies including France Telecom and Dutch manufacturer Philips.
It has participated in CeBIT for several years. "Creating an understanding and information about the tenets of
intellectual property rights by protecting and managing the patent holders' interests is one of Sisvel's primary
objectives," CEO Gian Antonio Pancot said.
Enforcement activities are a little less spectacular in the U.S., and trade show attendees won't have to
duck for cover as a rule. Over the past few years, Sisvel has expanded operations in Hong Kong and the U.S., and added new subsidiaries
in Tokyo and Germany.
This is simply because the U.S. is "better at keeping things out and preventing the need to make raids,"
said intellectual property attorney Marc Hankin, principal at Hankin Patent Law in Boston, MA.
Hankin added "customs will stop things at the border and not let them in if you notify them in advance." The
raids on the booths at CeBIT could have been a strategic and tactical move, Hankin said. "A lot of civil lawsuits
are served at trade shows because they can easily locate the people involved."
"Typically, these people are hiding and are hard to find, but when they're at a booth in a trade show, it's
a lot easier to identify them," said Hankin.
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Source: G.U.T.N.
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