Patents up by Claudia Sonea

Hanover is well-known for the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen (the only one in its original state from Germany), for Grotto, the Galery Building, but also for the world's largest computer exhibition and fair that covers all areas of technology. Typically the attendance at this fair is around 200000 visitors and 6000 exhibitors. This year the Hanover fair was marked by the intervention of the Police and customs officials due to suspicions of patent violations seized. According to the authorities' statement on Thursday 180 officials took part in the searches held on Wednesday and confiscated gadgets like cell phones, navigation devices, electronic picture frames and flat-screen devices and others. Thus at the annual CeBIT trade and technology fair 68 boxes were filled with gadgets, documents and advertising material. As a result of the numerous complaints from the holders of patent rights, the investigation affected 51 exhibitors who were signaled for patent violations regarding MP3, MP4 or digital video broadcast functions, DVD players and blank CDs and DVDs. One person refused to cooperate and was taken by the authorities. Mainly the exhibitors were from China and it was therefore no surprise that they were among the affected ones with 24 people from mainland China, three from Hong Kong and 12 from Taiwan. Also there were nine Germans, and one from Poland, one from the Netherlands and another one from Korea. No matter the outcome, patent violations represent a serious threat and police is doing well in assuring things. Too bad that that annual Hanover fair was marked by such incidents, but there are more days of exhibition hopefully and things will go smoother.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080306/ap_on_hi_te/germany_tech_fair_raid;_ylt=AkLa5fpj74A0Jfva.9XLsXas0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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