Even complete machines are copied without omission / Company logos and advertisement materials are also copied in the most daring manner

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by Alexander Hauk, www.bayernnachrichten.de

Frankfurt/Tauberbischofsheim (aha). In February the Plagiarius was awarded in Frankfurt for the 32nd time. With this prize, the Association “Aktion Plagiarius” claims to honor, each year, the most daring Plagiarists. Winners are disclosed within the scope of the Trade Fair “Ambiente”. The trophy is a black dwarf with a gold-colored nose as the symbol of the profit deserved by the prizewinners in the eyes of the jury. Last year, amongst others, the manufacturers of Vacuum Flasks, Notebooks, Road sweepers and Tapping valves were honored. Particularly favored are for instance, almost always, the salt and peppershakers of the company Koziol. Product Pirates no longer however, confine themselves only to small objects. Even complete machines are copied these days, without omission as the German manufacturer of Wood Processing Machines Weinig has been forced to realize. In a tour of the Beijing Trade Fair “China Wood”, staffs of this company discovered one of their machines, in which even the name of the company was copied.

The Chinese copied unscrupulously even in advertisement: They simply adopted pictures from Weinig catalog for their high-gloss brochures. The Tauberbischofsheim-based company Weinig was also able to bring one more Corpus Delicti back home from China. “The Planing Machine is precisely a copy of ours”, says Rainer Hundsdörfer, Chairman of the Executive Board of Michael Weinig AG.
Breaches of copyrights are indeed, no peccadilloes and of course, actions are taken against the imitators. “But the next one will be on the Trade Fair again the next day”, says Hundsdörfer. The battle against Plagiarism is a Sisyphean challenge.

The copied product was purchased by a staff at about EUR 6,000 in a Trade Fair in Asia. A comparable machine in Weinig cannot be obtained at any price short of EUR 35,000. According to Hundsdörfer, even though the copy in its poor design, is close to the original in the features it contains – there is indeed, a clear limit to the similarities: “The machine is simply awful and will not survive long routine usage” scolds Hundsdörfer and demonstratively shakes the loose carrier rollers. Good planing results cannot be achieved with this.

Safety and health impaired

To companies like Weinig AG, product piracy means the devaluation of their cost-intensive development work and the loss of market shares. Added to this are the hazards to which the company’s image is subjected particularly when such falsified products as are capable of endangering safety and health succeed in entering the market. This also had to be confronted by Hundsdörfer: “Even the CE sign was pasted on one copied product from Taiwan.” In fact, according to the Chairman, it did not meet the required standards of the European Union in any way. There was an increased risk of fire outbreak because the cable channels were so densely packaged.

Hundsdörfer estimates the company’s own losses in the aftermath of product piracy at 10 to 20 percent. Last year, Weinig AG realized a Group turnover of about EUR 400 million. The Association of German Machine and System Designers estimate turnover losses in the sector at about five billion Euros. In an opinion poll, more than half of the members of the Association stated that they are impacted by product piracy. According to the statement of the Association “Plagiarius”, macro-economic damages in Germany alone are in the vicinity of EUR 30 billion. Loss of jobs in the aftermath of piracy is estimated at approximately 70,000.

Daring Plagiarists

“We resist Plagiarists through a high pace of development works and shorter cycles of innovation”, says Hundsdörfer. “For us though, it is also important to have protective rights issued faster and with less bureaucratic impediments” Hundsdörfer adds, claiming to be sometimes stunned at the daring nature of Plagiarists: “Most often, they offer such products on the Trade Fair platform and display open pride on the good quality of the copies.” Some even asked for suggestions on improvement.

Criticisms of the Chinese Product Pirates notwithstanding: “Mandating customers are often from western countries”, says Plagiarius Managing Director Christine Lacroix.

(Internet: Michael Weinig AG: www.weinig.de)




In the year 2007, Weinig Group realized an overall turnover of about 410 million. The Weinig Group has approximately 2,200 employees worldwide, of which 1,600 are based in Germany. Weinig has Financial Investors from Kuwait since 1984.

Since 1977, Plagiarius has been awarding the negative prize for especially conspicuous product copies. The phrase is to reminisce of the ancient Roman epigrammatic specialist Marcus Valerius Martialis (40 to 104 AD), who described a copyist of his works with this word (actually depicting a Seller of souls, Slave trader). Plagiarius was founded by Professor Rido Busse in 1977 and has ever since, been awarded each year, by the Association bearing the same name.

Quelle: bayern-nachrichten.de / pressbot.net

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