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German Customs Agents Raid Another Trade Show
JagsLive tips the news that German customs agents have shown up in force to raid the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. (The last time we discussed news like this was during CeBIT, in Hanover, last March.) 220 customs agents seized electronic gear from 69 different booths at IFA. The Register reports that this raid, like the one last spring, was touched off after complaints by patent firm Sisvel. "They seized equipment which will now be checked for evidence of patent breaches. A spokesman for German Customs told us: 'We've raided 69 companies today. We have seized equipment including flat-screen TVs, CD players, set-top boxes and MP3 players.'"
O RLY?
> http://www.countryreports.org/economy/imports.aspx?Countryname=&countryId=91
looks like sisvel is a patent troll, could not really find any real information about what sort of patent they have. patent's seems to include things like CDMA2000, DVB-T and something about DRM.
preview button, my computer does't have any preview button
Afaik Sisvel is responsible for collecting the money on Mpeg Patents ... so pretty much everything using DVB-T without paying them fees is considered illegal. ... in the past Sisvel made its money in collecting fees for the volume bar used in all modern TVs. So you can clearly call them a patent troll.
Summer holidays just ended this very weekend in Berlin area.
605413? Yes, it's a prime.
Danke fuer diesen Augenoeffner!
Thanks for opening my eyes.
I have no idea if are just being sarcastic or an absolute dumbass.
The truth is, the law to contol the sales (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb) is from 1909 (and that's _before_ Hitler, in case you didn't know) and the current regulation is from 1950 (that's _after_ Hitler), so it seems Hitler had some time travellers to aid in his fight against the jews leaving the country.
Wow, what a troll. Just some corrections so that people don't misunderstand this persons "claims"...
Isn't Germany the place where it is illegal for stores to put items on sale, except for a few days each year?
No. It was until a couple of years ago. There was a law about seasonal sales (concerning seasonal items like eg summer/winter clothes) which were only allowed to be put on sale. That law (introduced 1909) was abolished 2004. There was a law limiting how rebates could be given - indeed from 1933. That was abolished 2001.
Wasn't this law passed by Hitler (opps, my bad...can't say that word in Deutschland)
There is nothing to stop you from that.
because Jewish store owners were selling their inventory below cost in order to get the funds together to escape the holocast?
Since it was apparently introduced in 1933, that is quite unlikely.
Isn't it kept on the books
If you mean laws governing the pricing of books: yes
still enforced (against mostly Turks and other minorities running little stores in minority neighborhoods) simply because it is the German Law and German Law must be obeyed regardless of how mean and stupid and senseless it is?
Laws are often enforced in Germany, yes. But the examples you mention (apart from book pricing) are no laws anymore. The laws were enforced against any kind of shops. It was mostly small shop owners who complained about abolishing the rebate law, since they felt that this would put them in disadvantage against the big chains.
Good thing too that the Soviets and the Americans burned the whole country to the ground, killed millions of them, and chased the few good Germans (oh, excuse me, I meant to say 'the Nazis') to the ends of the earth. Otherwise they would still be throwing Jews, Gipsies, and homos into the gas chambers. After all, the law is the law, and it must be obeyed!
Strange you hate Nazis so much, since your mindset is so similar...
There was a law about seasonal sales (concerning seasonal items like eg summer/winter clothes) which were only allowed to be put on sale
"... during certain weeks" I meant to say.
No. The LCDs and monitors, etc. are all an old patent related to onscreen volume display--you know, the bar graph?--licensed by most German TV manufacturers. SISvEl's latest "patent" has something to do with mp3's, though apparently not much. They pick on the wrong big company and they are going to get swatted like a fly.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
Last time around (2007), they
"filed claims of patent infringement" ... "in The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom" ... "seeking an injunction and damages." long before any products were seized.
SISVEL is more or less a spin-off formed from Philip's patent-licensing arm.
Have you heard of Philips? Because, you know, they invented a lot of stuff... including MPEG audio... used in DVB decoders, MP3 player, etc.
Since then, they've secured the rights to patents from several other companies as well, forming a patent pool, much like MPEG-LA, Audio MPEG, or VIA Licensing.
In the US we know SISVEL as "Audio MPEG, Inc."
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Just in case somebody wonders what the job of the German "Zoll" is: Their English homepage.
And more to the point: When can customs authorities take action?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck