Negative Award „Plagiarius“ sheds public light on impudent theft of ideas !

On February 11, 2011 the negative award “Plagiarius” was bestowed for the 35th time. Action Plagiarius grants this anti-prize at the annual “Ambiente”, the world’s largest consumer goods trade fair, during an international press conference. Numerous ongoing cases of brand- and product piracy as well as industrial espionage show that the problem has dramatically increased in scope and prominence.

Since 1977 the Plagiarius award has been given to those manufacturers and distributors whom the jury has found guilty of making or selling "the most flagrant" (design) imitations.
Right in the beginning designer Prof. Rido Busse specified the intention of his negative award as follows: “The decoration with the ‘Plagiarius’ award does not say anything about whether a plagiarism is permitted or not in the legal sense. Plagiarius must not and does not want to dispense justice. Our aim is to denounce the clumsy theft of ideas – i.e. the theft of intellectual property – and to raise the public awareness of the unscrupulous business practices of counterfeiters. According to the German saying “to earn oneself a gold nose” (= to earn much money) Busse chose as his key figure a black painted gnome with a gold nose to signify the huge and illicit earnings from product imitation.

Society benefits from the richness of ideas of single individuals
For the development of innovative products enterprises primarily need one thing: IDEAS !
In combination with the necessary design- and technical know-how as well as financial means and an unerring instinct for markets and trends these initial ideas turn into new products. Richness of ideas and know-how deserve a fair remuneration and again more appreciation of the society. Without original products plagiarisms would have no basis at all and there would be neither variety nor progress.

Plagiarisms and fakes are criminal and dangerous
In these times of the internet and globalisation the problem of brand- and product piracy has widely expanded and causes immense economic damage. Plagiarisms and counterfeits do not only sap legal trade and commerce they also result in the loss of jobs and the competitiveness of the leading industrial nations. Also, counterfeiters are becoming more and more professional and ruthless. Notably driven by greed they often use inferior materials, abandon quality controls and put at stake the health of the consumers. Demonstrably, many counterfeits contain toxic and harmful substances such as lead or cadmium. Fake cosmetics, food, pharmaceuticals and cigarettes are frequently contaminated. Defect technical or electronic items can even be fatal.

Cheap copies are nowadays globally distributed over online-shops and internationally operating networks. The profit margins are extremely high, the penalties far too low. According to Interpol organised crime therefore increasingly finances its activities by trade of counterfeit goods – using its existing structures and routes from drug, arms and human trafficking.

German customs successfully withdraws counterfeits from circulation
The economic damage due to plagiarism is hard to quantify. However, experts estimate the annual damage for Germany at up to 50 billion EURO. Statistics from German customs also confirm the increase of the problem. Solely within the first nine months in 2010 customs seized more counterfeited items than in 2009. More than 80% of the products seized in 2010 had its origin in Asia and the Near East Area. New is the fact that 56% of all retained items came from Thailand and therefore China as the long-time ‘front-runner’ is now only ranked second.

Considering the total value chain it becomes evident that China is anyway only part of the problem. It is a fact that counterfeits are mainly manufactured in South East Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe or Turkey. However, the industrial nations themselves are often the contracting entities who commission these imitations. Or, they cheaply purchase and gainfully resell them. The current Plagiarius-Prize-Winners also attest that western enterprises gain much money with imitations.

Furthermore, western companies should not underestimate the fact that China and other emerging Asian countries have gathered a lot of know-how and experience over the past decades. They are unerringly developing from the so called ‘extended workbench of western countries’ towards nations with their own innovative global players and strong brands. Against this background the awareness for the significance of Intellectual Property rises. Asian companies increasingly register and rigorously defend their IPR rights.

Responsibility and double moral standards of the consumers
Regarding the consumers there must be a differentiation between those who unknowingly bought plagiarisms and are themselves victims and those who deliberately purchase fakes. In fact many consumers nowadays are both, label-seekers and at the same time bargain hunters. For prestige reasons they are keen on brands and labels, but not willing to pay the price for the original product.

It is contradictory that many customers apply double standards: When evaluating an original product, dangerous safety shortcomings, the use of child labour or other degrading working conditions are not accepted. However, spotting a counterfeit at a give-away price, they act irresponsible, neglecting the fact that these fakes are manufactured without quality controls, social standards and without protection from noxious chemical substances for the factory workers.

These buyers should be aware that the intention of the counterfeiters is not to offer them more variety or cheap alternatives – it is simply a question of profit for the imitators. Thus, with the intentional purchase of fake products consumers directly invest in the greed for gain and the unscrupulousness of free riders and in many cases they support organised crime. Consequently, as our markets regulate themselves by supply and demand each consumer bears considerable responsibility for success or failure of pirated goods.

How to enthuse customers for original goods
However, in order to gain the consumers as comrades-in-arms in the battle against fakes and plagiarisms, the original producers also have to increase their commitment. Against the background that with globalisation not only the copies, but increasingly many (parts of) original products are manufactured in low-wage countries the customers are confused and annoyed about the huge price differences. Value, benefits and advantages of original items have to be communicated much more clearly than before. It is most important to convince the customers. Only when they understand the reasoning behind the supposedly high price of the original product will they be willing to pay the price and restrain from buying cheap fakes.

Hands-on sensitisation in the Museum Plagiarius

The Jury of the Plagiarius-Competition 2011:

Each year the jury is put together individually with specialists from diverse sectors (Design, Intellectual Property, Business, Media etc.). The following persons formed this years' jury:

Christiane Appel
Chief Editor m+a report, Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH, Frankfurt

Bettina Countess Bernadotte
General Manager Mainau GmbH, Mainau Island (Lake Constance)

Achim Gabor
Chairman Gabor Shoes AG, Rosenheim

Karl-Heinz Keller
Director Police Department Ulm

Hannelore Koch
Customs Officer / Executive Class, Main Customs Office Krefeld

Marcus Kühne
Head of the Designs Unit, German Patent and Trade Mark Office, Jena

Titus Wouda Kuipers
General Manager Germany / Switzerland, Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH, Hamburg

Dr. Wolfgang Zieher
Chief Senior Public Prosecutor, Department of Public Prosecution, Ulm

Legal Advice:

Dr. Aliki Busse
Lawyer, Busse & Partner - Lawfirm, Munich

The Prize winners of the Plagiarius-Competition 2011:

The jury met on January 15, 2011. Three prizes, six distinctions and one special prize were awarded; total entities: 28.

1. Prize
After the Plagiarius Awarding the parties involved have found a mutual consent not to mention their names any more.

2. Prize
Veggi Cut Revolution “swizzzProzzz“
Original: swizzzProzzz AG, Beckenried, Switzerland
Plagiarism: Distribution: NingHai Well International Trade Co., Ltd., Zhejiang, PR China
Distribution: The French distributor found a mutual agreement with swizzzProzzz, i.e. he removed the imitations from the market, destroyed them, and revealed the name of the Chinese distributor

3. Prize
Event-Bag “Basic“
Original: Halfar System GmbH, Bielefeld, Germany
Plagiarism: WIL Langenberg GmbH, Hückeswagen, Germany

Six “Distinctions“ (equal in rank) were awarded:

Retractable Dog Leash “flexi Classic“
Original: flexi-Bogdahn International GmbH & Co. KG, Bargteheide, Germany
Plagiarism: Cixi Jian Er Plastics Co., Ltd., Cixi City, PR China

Vibrator “Patchy Paul G2”
Original: FUN FACTORY GmbH, Bremen, Germany
Plagiarism: LoveToys Industrial Co., Ltd., Guangdong, PR China
Distribution: The Austrian distributor found a mutual agreement with FUN FACTORY, i.e. he removed the imitations from the market and revealed the name of the Chinese producer

Wash Basin Faucet “Hansgrohe Focus S”
Original: Hansgrohe AG, Schiltach, Germany
Plagiarism: Joyou Group Building Materials Co., Ltd., Fujian, PR China

HOPPE-Secustik® Window Handle “Atlanta“
Original: HOPPE AG, Stadtallendorf, Germany
Plagiarism: Shenzhen Guro Windows & Doors Hardware Co., Ltd., Guangdong, PR China

Industrial Enclosure “TS 8“
Original:  Rittal GmbH & Co. KG, Herborn, Germany
Plagiarism: Shanghai HaoFuMan Electricity Equipment Co., Ltd., Shanghai, PR China

Mortice Lock for Interior Doors (Art.-No. 1246000)
Original: Schulte-Schlagbaum AG, Velbert, Germany
Plagiarism: Abson A/S, Ikast, Denmark

The following "Special Prize" was awarded:

Special Award for a Falsification
Watch “FORTIS-B-47 Calculator GMT 3 Time Zones”
Original: FORTIS Uhren AG, Grenchen, Switzerland
Falsification: Distribution: Digital Time Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand

The award ceremony of “Plagiarius 2011“ took place as follows

Consumer Goods Trade Fair „Ambiente“
Congress Center, Frankfurt Fair, Room „Illusion 1-3“
on Friday, February 11, 2011, 11:30 a.m.

The laudatory speech on the prize winners was made by
his Imperial Highness Dr. Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate, consultant for Africa and Middle East, political publicist and bestselling author.

The Plagiarius prize winners 2010 + 2011 will be presented at the Special Show "Plagiarius" from February 11-15, 2011 at the Foyer 5.1. / 6.1. As of March 1, 2011 the prize winners 2011 will be presented in the Museum Plagiarius in Solingen. (Bahnhofstr. 11, 42651 Solingen, Germany, Open: Tuesday-Sunday 10-17 h)