Plagiarius 2016: again design of Kurz Kurz Design has been copied
The business with plagiarism and counterfeiting is booming - and hardly any product is safe from imitators. Anyone who copies saves on idea, development and research and all the associated costs.
Two years ago, it was a cutlery by Kurz Kurz Design, this year is a gate driveline, a gate closing technology.
In this case, the manufacturers of original and copy even come from the same place. "That's not unusual," says Christine Lacroix of the action Plagiarius. Frequently, companies from one industry concentrated in one region.
It was only through his customers that the original manufacturer Niederhoff & Dellenbusch learned of the copy from the neighborhood. The buyers would have complained about declining quality, says CEO Volker Kirchberg. It turned out: The gate driveline looked just like the original, but came from Steinbach & Vollmann.
The negative award "Plagiarius" was presented on February 12, 2016 at the Frankfurt consumer goods fair "Ambiente" for the 40th time in the context of an international press conference. Since 1977 Plagiarius e.V. has been awarding the dreaded "price" to manufacturers and dealers of particularly blatant imitations and counterfeits. The aim of the association is to publicize the dubious business practices of product and brand pirates from all over the world and to sensitize industry, politics and consumers to the problem. Trophy is a black dwarf with a golden nose - a symbol of the exorbitant profits proverbs at the expense of creative designers and innovative manufacturers.