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FORGERIES IN CHINA
BETEK DEFENDS ITSELF AGAINST IDEAS THEFT

The audacity with which Chinese companies copy European businesses' products is incredible. Last autumn Betek came across several Chinese tool producers at the 'Bauma' trade fair in Shanghai who had breached Betek intellectual property rights with many of their exhibits. Betek took systematic and well-prepared action against the product pirates – with success: one Chinese exhibitor had to remove its cutting tool copies, complete with toolbox, from its stand.

Betek management assistant Stefan Dettinger and Martin Lenz from partners Wirtgen GmbH discovered the copy of a Betek bit and toolbox on the stand of Chinese exhibitor 'Everpads Machinery Accesssory'. Apart from that, not only were the products a copy, the illustrations in the catalogue and in the supposed patent documents also did not tally. They immediately reported this to the 'Intellectual property complaints office' that the show organisers had set up at the fair. Almost as expected a counter claim came in the following the day. In the absence of any legally valid patent documents, this was, however, quickly dismissed. There was thus nothing left for the Chinese exhibitor other than to the remove the samples of the cutting tool and toolbox copied from Betek for the remainder of the show. Betek was assisted in Shanghai by an international law firm that specialises in, amongst other fields, product piracy. According to a study produced by the VDMA (Association of German Plant and Machinery Manufacturers), the worldwide losses caused by such product copies is estimated to be up to 660 billion euros a year.

Karl Kammerer, Betek CEO: „We have registered a large number of patents that are globally protected. With high value products in particular the chances of getting justice in the event of patent violations are better than people assume. However, you have to be well prepared – many product pirates work on the premise that 'where there is no complainant, there is also no judge'. In this case our best form of defence was attack.“ Betek products were getting copied increasingly quickly and in ever-poorer quality, added Kammerer, who at the same time underlined the importance of Germany as a production site. „The enormous pressure on prices created by foreign products is naturally a challenge for us. However, with our highly qualified and committed staff, our innovative and high value products and our excellent technical support we are well ahead of the rest. Those are success factors that are 'Made in Germany' or 'Made in Aichhalden' and are impossible to copy!“