"Innovation
vs. Imitation - Plagiarius” accuses
imitators for their unimaginative and shameless
behaviour!
Initiated already back in 1977 by
Prof. Rido Busse, the negative award "Plagiarius"
serves to inform the public about the problem of
fakes and plagiarisms and the negative impacts they
have on not only the economy as a whole, but also
on small companies and designers. Action Plagiarius
awards the negative award at the annual “Ambiente”
trade fair during a press conference. The award
is given to those com-panies that the jury has found
guilty of making "the most flagrant" design
imitations. As his key figure, Busse chose a gnome,
which he painted black with a gold nose to signify
the “illicit earnings from product imitation”.
Admittedly, there is no progress and development
without referring to already existing patterns,
ideas and rules. However what counts is the willingness
to develop the existing and give it an individual
and distinctive style. The imitators pursue one
goal only: to profit at the expense of the hard
work of others – and this affects the creatives
and the consumers likewise.
They copy successful products thereby not only saving
on expensive costs for R&D and marketing, but
also in production costs by outsourcing the production
to foreign countries where the cost is much lower
resulting in sometimes lower quality products which
ultimately is at the expense of the consumer. In
some industries such as toys, technical / electronic
products or medication the poor quality can even
be fatal.
Facts & Numbers
>
10% of world-wide commerce
are fakes and plagiarisms
3
years EU-wide design protection: evident and
tamper-proof.
At Designpublisher.com new designs can be
presented cheaply, effectively and well-organized
in order to satisfy the ‘disclosure’
requirement.
VeRi
– the Verified Rights Owner Program
–protects IP (intellectual property)
rights. VeRi allows IP owners to report infringing
items offered on ebay.de.
