MA Lighting and Avolites lead anti-counterfeit action
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The move comes shortly after the two stage lighting solutions manufacturers joined forces in a similar action against an alleged counterfeiter at Frankfurt’s Prolight+Sound.
Franco Zaghini, director of business development for MA Lighting, and Avolites’ sales director Koy Neminathan led the team to negotiate with alleged counterfeit manufacturers on the show floor and asked them to withdraw all displayed infringing products.
Zaghini comments: “On the first day of the show, we sat with the GET organisers to show them all our patents, trademarks and IPs and their authenticity. At the same time, our staff went around the exhibition halls to identify potential infringers. The second day, we visited the booths of [these] companies accompanied by GET show organisers. We sat at the table of their booths with their management, owners and staff who had declared themselves entitled to speak with us.
“After showing them the proof of our patents and IP rights, none of [them] had any objections and they removed voluntarily all the infringing products.”
The GET show organisers warned that pirating can become “a malignant tumour that harms the industry”, adding: “It is understandable to learn advanced foreign technology through imitation during the early years of manufacturing industry development, but pirated copyright infringement is a totally different concept from imitation learning.
“The practice of pirating infringement under the name of ‘imitation learning’ can only become a malignant tumour that harms the industry, it is also a clear crime.
“Our manufacturing industry needs more innovation, and we urgently need to improve Intellectual Property Protection. Of course, we should support Made-in-China, but this is definitely not as such Made-in-China. Otherwise, in the future when we will once again face sanctions like those that the United States has launched against ZTE and the trade war waged against our entire manufacturing industry we can only surrender.”
(Jim Evans)
