German Customs cracks down at IFA

MSI staff talk with customs officials German Customs officials have raided several stands at this years IFA trade show in Berlin, including Emtec's, MSI's, and Xoro's. The officials are acting on behalf of Sisvel, which has a stand in Hall 2.2 at this year's IFA. Sisvel claims that these exhibitors are violating its patent rights and is exploiting German law to draw media attention to these raids in order to put the vendors under public pressure.

At MSI's stand, officials talked with MSI's Marketing Director Dirk Neuneier for quite some time and took a close look at a number of the firm's products, including notebooks and netbooks. In the end, the officials confiscated some TV tuners and video capture devices that were on display, such as the MSI Vox min Plus. IFA visitors had gathered around the stand during the investigation, and the crowd was politely told to disperse.

Sisvel, an Italian firm, has had customs officials cause a scene before at the IFA and most recently did so at CeBIT. The Italians say they are the "sole licensee" of basic MPEG audio patents and "Top Teletext". For some time, Sisvel has been involved in legal disputes with other firms, which the Italians charge with patent violations.
TV tuner cards were the bone of contention at MSI's stand.

In addition to customs officials, police officers also visited a number of trade show booths, possibly on the lookout for product forgeries. At the moment, it is not clear how many companies have undergone the searches instigated by Sisvel. At CeBIT this spring, 51 exhibitors were subjected to such embarrassment in what the Hanover police called "by far the largest search ever at CeBIT". Most of the firms in question are from Asia or import devices from Chinese companies.

(trk)