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.'"

Comments

The burden of proof?

[samcan]

Who has the burden of proof to prove that patents were infringed? Shouldn't Sisvel have to provide evidence that these 69 companies are infringing on patents? Do German custom agents have to secure warrants to seize property? While not the U.S., I cannot believe that Germans would willingly stand for the police taking whatever property they believe could be stolen or based off another's design.

Also, would 69 different companies all choose Sisvel's products to infringe? I've never even heard of Sisvel!

Re:The burden of proof?

[Elektroschock]

Patent firm also known in popular circles as "troll", a term coined by Intel. It means a company without a product with a patent portfolio that goes after companies in the market and enforces its patents.

I'm glad that the agents were armed...

[notseamus]

You know how quickly someone can pull a gun at a trade show...

An even hand

[MrKaos]

I wonder if they will also look for Open Source Licence violations?

Tit for tat

[Vinegar Joe]

It'll be interesting to hear the howls when German businessmen start getting detained in Taipei and Shanghai. I have some news, the jails in Asia are not places where you want to spend any time.

Re:Tit for tat

[Steve Franklin]

First of all, Sisvel is an ITALIAN company. That's Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell'Elettronica. "In fact Sisvel initiated its activity of granting licenses for the use of its patents back in 1986, the first licensees were all the major German television manufactures, and namely: Telefunken, Saba, Nordmende, Philips, ITT, Grundig, Loewe-Opta, Metz, etc." So, basically, the Germans' stake in this is that they have bought into the Sisvel patent scheme and are trying to prevent others from beating them on price by not paying the same licensing fees to the Italian bandits. Kind of reminds you of how the Mafia does business. And for the future?: "Apart from the rights bestowed with its industrial property, a further important patrimony of Sisvel is that represented by the know-how acquired concerning the more efficient and practical channels for economically exploiting industrial property rights. Through the calculated utilisation of this know-how it is quite possible to imagine a development of the company's activities in sectors being different from that of consumer electronics, which up to the present has been the sole sector within which Sisvel has operated." This sounds suspiciously like a machine translation--"a further important patrimony"?--but its clear these characters intend to use their patent income to further enlarge their sphere of operations. Keep your heads down guys. The Axis Powers are on the march again, this time right up your ass!

Re:Just Germans being Germans

[Steve Franklin]

There used to be "fair trade" laws in the US making it illegal to sell below "list price."

Here's an idea

[HangingChad]

Don't hold the trade show there next year. Don't reward stupidity by continuing to patronize them.

And, yes, I realize as an American saying that I'm inviting the same reaction to our thuggish behavior.

Re:Pfft.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it makes sense to do this on a trade show, as it is direct proof that the manufacturer (and not some trader/importer) is infringing on rights. The real issue (for me at least) is not how it was done, but that there are patents for trivial stuff to begin with.
However, it would be interesting to see, if the german authorities would follow a case of open source license infringement with the same vigor. Maybe one should take a look around for "candidates" on current trade shows ...

Re:Celebration.

[Elektroschock]

It is Sisvel, an Italian "patent troll". A show for which the customs are part of the I scare you game.

At it Again

[segedunum]

This whole Sisvel MP3 patent is being carried along on one thing - the illusion of it being right. Not only are patents like the MP3 one Sisvel says it has arguably not enforceable in Europe, the MP3 patent is so vague you struggle to apply it to the MP3 'format' at all. It doesn't define MP3 or any of its defining features at all. It just arbitrarily describes features of an audio format that could apply to anything (conveniently in most cases, they apply it to MP3). What's interesting is the language they tend to use:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5312696.stm

Giustino de Sanctis, head of Sisvel's Audio MPEG division, said that SanDisk had to "follow the standard" because it was "not possible to do it any other way".

One can only guess what he means by 'the standard' and 'not possible to do it any other way', but then, Sisvel's ability to collect money for this depends on those illusions being true.

Re:Next year, they'll do it in Belgium

[Hurricane78]

Guess what: Germany is one of - if not THE - largest exporter in the world.
Even much stuff from China in fact belongs to German firms.

Get some perspective!

Germany exports as much (about) as the whole EU

[Anonymous Coward]

What is more surprising is that Germany exports as much (about) as the whole EU.

This is the problem with the double standard EU countries get to play. They get to stand alone in one set of statistics and then stand together in another set of statistics.