Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
fast as ever...
and all you german patent officials can shove your patents up your arses.
its absolutely appalling to see a european country axeing their own trade. and its not as if germany is a HUGE market like china or whatever.
Read radical news here
Patent laws are like landfills, every country has them, and they all stink.
"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.'"
Now all they need is lots of beer and an upcoming holiday.
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!
Will Sisvel be held responsible if their claims are found groundless?
From the listing of devices seized, they must be spreading their patent claims pretty wide.
Either that or it has something to do in common with all those devices - maybe remote control?
I don't read AC A human right
O RLY?
> http://www.countryreports.org/economy/imports.aspx?Countryname=&countryId=91
You know how quickly someone can pull a gun at a trade show...
I dreamed of Freud: What does this mean?
And to think this would be a no brainer if the manufacturers only allowed FOSS Codecs to be used on the demo units.
Regardless if the claims hold merit, there is only one direction the shit will flow. People will quit reserving booths for these shows. Manufacturers will go outside of Germany. Then... what are you left with? Nothing being made in Germany, and no one wanting to exhibit their wares there either.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Christ almighty, maybe it is time for the Americans to start bombing....
This is my sig.
Patents s
oh fuck I give up
GOATSE is to the GNAA, CH is to the Slovak Island.
flat-screen TVs, CD players, set-top boxes and MP3 players
In other news, a world cup qualifier game has just been rescheduled for Mainz, Germany. No doubt the stolen gear will require further examination.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
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.
But probably Cheney's idea
Always nice to see the Germans living up to their well deserved reputation! :^)
This is just Germans being German, but still it is incredibly stupid.
Isn't Germany the place where it is illegal for stores to put items on sale, except for a few days each year? Wasn't this law passed by Hitler (opps, my bad...can't say that word in Deutschland) because Jewish store owners were selling their inventory below cost in order to get the funds together to escape the holocast? Isn't it kept on the books and 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? Good thing that they don't grow cotton in Germany, otherwise they would still have colored drinking fountains.
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!
Jawohl!
Cutting edge electronics, cheap! Look for van parked behind Customs Office. Prices marked on the bottom side of evidence tags. This sale comes around only once a year so don't miss out!
They just need upgrades and they have 0 funding for them so they need to do this.
This is an extremely stupid move. Companies will stop demoing/selling products in Germany.
Unbelievable move. Germany is biting the hand that feeds it.
I wonder if they will also look for Open Source Licence violations?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
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.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I'm not holding my breath, but the deterrent effect on German business competitiveness something like this can have might be enough to get politicians talking about what's wrong with their patent laws, or at least patent enforcement.
The PR war over patents has always been promoting innovation versus stifling it, with most business lobbyists lining up on the "they're good" side. In this particular case, though, the sides lined up are basically Sisvel versus everyone else, which may lead to some pro-reform lobbying (at least modest reform) even from usually pro-patent businesses. It also brings in other special interests who usually stay out of the patent wars, like the travel/convention industry.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Summer holidays just ended this very weekend in Berlin area.
605413? Yes, it's a prime.
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.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
1. Found new country or buy existing one.
2. Hold big trade show.
3. Seize lots of electronics for alleged patent violations.
4. Sell them on eBay.
5. PROFIT!
"Heaven is where the Police are British, the Chefs are French, the Mechanics are German, the Lovers Italian and it's all organised by the Swiss. Hell is where the Chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, the Police are German and it's all organised by the Italians."
stand by, the lights are coming our way again. fear is unprecedented evile's primary weapon. that, along with deception & coercion, helps most of us remain (unwittingly?) dependent on its' greed/fear/ego based hired goons' agenda. Most of yOUR dwindling resources are being squandered on the 'war', & continuation of the billionerrors stock markup FraUD/pyramid scheme. nobody ever mentions the real long term costs of those debacles in both life & the notion of prosperity, not to mention the abuse of the consciences of those of us who still have one. see you on the other side of it. the lights are coming up all over now. conspiracy theorists are being vindicated. some might choose a tin umbrella to go with their hats. the fairytail is winding down now. let your conscience be yOUR guide. you can be more helpful than you might have imagined. there are still some choices. if they do not suit you, consider the likely results of continuing to follow the corepirate nazi hypenosys story LIEn, whereas anything of relevance is replaced almost instantly with pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking propaganda or 'celebrity' trivia 'foam'. meanwhile; don't forget to get a little more oxygen on yOUR brain, & look up in the sky from time to time, starting early in the day. there's lots going on up there.
http://news.google.com/?ncl=1216734813&hl=en&topic=n
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?em&ex=1199336400&en=c4b5414371631707&ei=5087%0A
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/world/29amnesty.html?hp
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/02/nasa.global.warming.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/05/severe.weather.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/02/honore.preparedness/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01dowd.html?em&ex=1212638400&en=744b7cebc86723e5&ei=5087%0A
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/05/senate.iraq/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/washington/17contractor.html?hp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/middleeast/03kurdistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080708/cheney_climate.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080805/pl_politico/12308;_ylt=A0wNcxTPdJhILAYAVQms0NUE
is it time to get real yet? A LOT of energy is being squandered in attempts to keep US in the dark. in the end (give or take a few 1000 years), the creators will prevail (world without end, etc...), as it has always been. the process of gaining yOUR release from the current hostage situation may not be what you might think it is. butt of course, most of US don't know, or care what a precarious/fatal situation we're in. for example; the insidious attempts by the felonious corepirate nazi execrable to block the suns' light, interfering with a requirement (sunlight) for us to stay healthy/alive. it's likely not good for yOUR health/memories 'else they'd be bragging about it? we're intending for the whoreabully deceptive (they'll do ANYTHING for a bit more monIE/power) felons to give up/fail even further, in attempting to control the 'weather', as well as a # of other things/events.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=weather+manipulation&btnG=Search
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=video+cloud+spraying
dictator style micro management has never worked (for very long). it's an illness. tie that with life0cidal aggression & softwar gangster style bullying, & what do we have? a greed/fear/ego based recipe for disaster. meanwhile, you can help to stop the bleeding (loss of life & limb);
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/28/vermont.banning.bush.ap/index.html
the bleeding must be stopped before any healing can begin. jailing a couple of corepirate nazi hired goons would send a clear message to the rest of the world from US. any truthful look at the 'scorecard' would reveal that we are a society in decline/deep doo-doo, despite all of the scriptdead pr ?firm? generated drum beating & flag waving propaganda that we are con
Yeah, it seems to be pretty strange.
Besides remote control tech, some sort of new take, perhaps. Maybe LCD display tech, or some technique in there? MP3 players, set top boxes, monitors? Maybe a tuner?
I don't read AC A human right
The summary says CD players were seized in the raid. This leaves me with a question:
Why?
If it is a CD player, what harm could it really do? Are they CD players that they suspect were made to play counterfeit playstation games or something? I'm not familiar with this "sisvel" company - how could they hold patents on CD players?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5312696.stm
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.
I think it depends upon the size of the potential market. If businesses think they can make a profit, they will take a risk to attend the tradeshow. I'll bet that each company affected has somekind of internal review and looks at ways to develop effective countermeasures.Then it will be a business decision - cost of doing business vs. rate of return.
Does the CD player play mp3 files? Some do. If they do, then, in the estimation of the Axis Powers (Italians and Germans), they need a license from Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell'Elettronica. By the way, damnedest acronym I've ever seen: Soc...Ital...SVilu...ELett.... These are the kinds of perturbations folks normally go through to get an acronym that actually means something! Why not just call it SISE?
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
(BOOM !!!!!) Afaik Sisvel goes byebye !!
In Ireland every year there is a young scientist competition http://www.btyoungscientist.ie/ and I'm sure many/most other countries have similar events.
In the past this event has been sponsored by many large tech companies. Over the last few years I've always thought it would be nice to see some statistics on how many entries violate patents, particularly the winners (I also wonder how many times companies spot an idea at these show then apply for a patent knowing the entrant probably hasn't already).
Perhaps even disqualifying an entry if it violates a patent. Of course if you did that the barrier to entry becomes to high. Kids with creative minds get put off (all that legal and patent research), science and engineering subjects take a hit. Why do all that work when a vaguely worded patent covering a non-existent product means either you get left out in the cold while they license the patent that now has a use, or you enter an agreement where you get a small cut of the profit for doing most of the work, or you challenge the patent and if you lose get a bill you'll be paying for most of your life.
The good side to this is that it might make people more aware of the problems with patents and the need for reform.
Personally I think patents are/were a good idea, but some serious rethinking needs to be done the system at the moment favours large corporates to much.
So maybe we should tear into the school kids not shelter them, maybe after getting kicked out of a science fair because crop x has a patent on using a tabbed interface at least some the importance of paying attention to how you vote and why politics/voicing your opinion is important.
Trying to restore the Third Reich, eh?
Amen, Brother/Sister.
With the sometimes horrid quality of products sold, it is almost impossible for the average consumer to validate the authenticity of any given product.
If I need to be concerned that if I purchase a product, then resell it at some point in the future, that I may be held liable for that, criminally AND civilly, simply because I cannot not tell whether or not I bought an original/authorized version, then I am NOT going to purchase the product at all.
This is simply telling me that the simple act of purchasing a product may result in personal liability.
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.
SISE was already trademarked?
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.
They could have simply and politely bought these products (under the archaic theory that the makers are innocent until proven guilty) and tested them for patent breaches. If patent breaches are discovered then you wait for the next trade show and with your warrant or summons in hand you charge your perpetrator.
Seriously, what is with all this capitalist-driven use of armed policemen to enforce fucking intellectual property laws? This is all business stuff. You find someone breaks your patent you sue them and put them out of business.
And frankly, you have to be able to prove damages in an obvious manner. Demonstrate that you - or another legitimate competitor - would have been likely to obtain contracts and orders that were gained by unscrupulous infringers. And you must be able to demonstrate a conscientious intent to infringe. Perhaps it's not that easy for a Korean manufacturer to check the German patent records.
These kinds of draconian fishing expeditions by customs or other agents of commerce are patently stupid and should be illegal.
Man, I feel like watching Brazil again. It's such a prescient movie.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Why the need to raid a trade show, couldn't they have just bought the gear directly from the companies. This is nothing more than extortion ...
davecb5620@gmail.com
tell me what is preventing all other companies around the world from setting up factories in china and exporting to everywhere from there. hey - my bad, they ARE already doing it.
exporting doesnt mean zit. market size is important for having a clout. germany is a small market, doesnt have the clout many expanding markets (china, russia and the like) have in international trade.
Read radical news here
After the first time, why would anybody hold, much less attend, a technology trade show in Germany?
In a totally unrelated story; German police officer recruiting hits all time high as police stations now come equipped with flat-screen TVs, CD players, set-top boxes and MP3 players.
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
Patents are granted on inventions, not ideas, not implementations of ideas.
Don't see much in the way of SISEes on the internet. Actually, they could have called it SISEL, which does mean something, though not related to their business, unless you picture them tying up the manufacturers and beating them with rubber hoses.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.