Slashdot Mirror
German Police Raid 51 CeBIT Stands Over Patent Claims
LeCaddie writes "Last week German investigators raided 51 exhibitor stands at CeBIT, the German information technology fair in Hanover, looking for goods suspected of infringing patents. Some 183 police, customs officers, and prosecutors raided the fair on Wednesday and carried off 68 boxes of electronic goods and documents including cellphones, navigation devices, digital picture frames, and flat-screen monitors. Of the 51 companies raided, 24 were Chinese. Most of the patents concerned were related to devices with MP3, MP4, and DVB standard functions for digital audio and video, blank CDs, and DVD copiers, police said." In the US there are no criminal penalties associated with patents, and such a raid could not be conducted, especially in the absence of a court ruling of infringement.
The Fraunhofer Institute, who invented the MP3 and makes similar formats, is likely a source of information about the violators of at least the codec IP infringement. MP3 and many other formats aren't in the public domain in the GPL sense. They're likely behind part of this.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Actually, i expect another raid during the IFA (consumer electronics show) in Berlin, end of august. And again, Roberto Dini of Sisvel will deny any responsibility.
The United States is a collection of independent "states" with their own independent constitutions, law making bodies, courts, etc... they are then united with other "states" under a unifying constitution which provides for its own organized law-making body, courts, etc...
Now... compare this to EU "countries" which have their own independent constitutions, law making bodies, courts etc... and then are united with other "countries" under a unifying constitution which provides for its own organized law-making body, courts, etc...
Playing my own devil's advocate... Even individuals states in the USA can have their own armies, called "State Defense Forces". Although only half (25) of the states have such an army, they do exist, and all state legislatures have authorized the creation and maintenance of such forces. A final argument might be that unlike EU countries, individual states in the USA do not partake in foreign affairs and do not have foreign delegates. This might be true to an extent, but border-states, such as California and Texas, certainly must deal with some level of foreign affairs.
Hmm... yeah, the EU and the USA are really different. If the USA is a country, than the EU is a country. If Germany is a country, than Pennsylvania is too. I think this is a matter of pride and perception than it is about terminology, or even reality. Finally, a distinction should be drawn against the EU and "Europe", such as there is a distinction between the USA and "North America". One is a country, the other is a continent.
This was mostly about cheap-ass asian style 'product piracy'. iPhone lookalikes with clear intent to be confused with the iPhone (right down to the packaging), 100% iPod shuffle ripp-offs and implementation of commercial MP3 decoders from companies who weren't paying the licencing fees to the Frauenhofer Institut.
The chinese ripping off IP is a big issue in Germany. They order a machine, dismantle it and copy it exactly, down to the last bolt and then sell cheap low-quality knock-offs of it back to Europe.
My cousin (engineer at Airbus) tells me there even is an Airbus 320 that went to China some time ago. That was it's only flight and it never appeared again. He suspects it's lying around somewhere dismantled and analysed.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
The patents claimed are the ones of Sisvel, a Philips proxytroll, who is suing every MP3 manufacturer for royalties.
They have a list of 3 or 4 software patents which belongs to the MPEG1-layer3 ISO standard, be it implemented in hardware of in software:
http://www.ipeg.com/_UPLOAD%20BLOG/Sisvel%20patents%20overview.pdf
The German police is using the criminal procedure to seize counterfeited goods, despite the fact that those patents could be challenged in court for validity.
If there are some MP3 manufacturers reading slashdot and interested to kick some of those patents for subject matter exclusion, you can contact me at zoobab@gmail.com.
Also, Philips might be the only company who is lobbying the European Union (Council and Parliament) for using criminal sanctions and freeze of bank accounts in civil proceedings for patent infringements.
And I would like to say 40 from Asia and and 11 from Europe.
The fact is, although I know the distinction is lost on some, that, while technically China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao are all "Chinese", they are not one culture. Heck even those from mainland China are not all one culture. I have had friends from each country and some identify more with their region than with "China" (that is especially true of those from Taiwan).
Personally I am not so troubled with your comment, which I think was made in jest. But being modded +5 informative? Why? Funny maybe, but informative, hardly.
Let's see:
Expensive sony vaio sits on your pants (lap), several inches away from your testicles.
Expensive sony vaio has in it an expensive certified Sony rechargeable battery that is even more likely to overheat than an aftermarket one.
Expensive sony vaio has cheapo cooling heatsink and causes overheating issues including notebook shutdowns and has spawned many "freeze" sites to document problems.
Expensive sony vaio has customer service, but it is so bad it's better not to use them. Actually more expensive to use them than to just ignore the problem or replace device with another brand.
Next step left as exercise for the student.
I mean honestly, spending a few grand on a vaio i thought i was getting a quality product. Everyone said they were second to IBM (at the time) think pads. I had already learned my lessons through the years with all the junk they make (walk mans, cd mans, car cd mans, head units for cars, home stereos, tv's, radios etc etc) that has broken down on me. But i trusted everyones advice and ended up getting burned in the end.
So whats worse? buying a product you know is a copy, and it performing as expected? Or buying the original certified version and have it perform as a copy? At least you get your monies worth with a copy. But the thing is, you can buy decent copies that don't have "sonny" on them. A few companies make decent hardware for the same low price.
One last thing, people make this argument with harley davidsons. They but them for the name not the quality. Believe me, my Honda ACE performs better than any new harley davidson and has more miles on it than most harleys will have in their entire life time, and that's just not a coincidence. It's a completely different manufacturing mindset. People will swear harley until they die or run out of money (because they bought the harley boots, jacket, gloves, t-shirts etc). But they'll never get on a reliable japanese bike because "if you don't ride a harley, you don't ride a real bike."
My abilities are only limited by my imagination