[photopress:CeBit_Hanover.jpg,full,alignright]Police and customs officials investigating suspected patent violations seized mobile phones, navigation devices and other gadgets in raids at a technology fair in Germany.
Police in Hanover said that more than 180 officials were involved in the searches Wednesday at the annual CeBIT trade and technology fair in the central German city.
A police statement saidThey filled 68 boxes with gadgets, documents and advertising material. The material included cell phones, navigation devices, electronic picture frames and flat-screen devices.
They said that of the 51 exhibitors affected, 24 were from mainland China, three from Hong Kong and 12 from Taiwan. Another nine were German, with one each from Poland, the Netherlands and Korea.
Thepolice said that ‘the background is the number that has been rising for years of criminal complaints by the holders of patent rights in the run-up to CeBIT.’
In other countries this simply could not happen.
In Australia there would be, first, a need to get an Anton Pillar order.
This is an order made by the court to search and seize in a civil action and is used by a would be plaintiff as a precursor to instituting proceedings.
To obtain an Anton Pillar order an applicant must satisfy a very high threshold to convince a court to exercise its discretion to issue one. The judge must be satisfied that there is a prima facie case to answer AND that there is a reasonable and probable cause to believe that evidence would be destroyed before evidence could be garnered for an infringement action.
So, in Australia it would be a non-starter. And, incidentally, the plaintiff may have to pay large penalties for pursuing an Anton Pillar order.
In the US there are no criminal penalties associated with patents, and such a raid could not be conducted, especially in the absence of a court ruling of infringement.
In Germany the police said the patent holders ‘had pointed out to the affected exhibiting firms in good time the lack of licensing contracts.’
Most of the patents concerned were related to devices with MP3, MP4, and DVB standard functions for digital audio and video, blank CDs, and DVD copiers. It is a very fair bet the German police do not have the expertise to make a judgement in such issues. And it is even more certain that CeBit has just added another nail in its coffin. It is dying. This will hasten the process.
Sources: Slashdot and International Herald Tribune