Plagiarius Exhibition in the Red Dot Design Museum Extended

The Plagiarius exhibition in the red dot design museum has been extended to 25 February 2007.

This exhibition is part of the annually awarded negative prize "Plagiarius," which was created by Professor Rido Busse in 1977 and presents originals and counterfeits of well-known products which have received the "Plagiarius."

In 1977, when Professor Busse discovered an exact copy of the letter/diet scales 8600, which were designed by him and manufactured by the company Soehnle-Waagen, at a stand of a Hong Kong manufacturer - offered for a sixth of the original price and of course having a considerably lower quality - he decided to draw the public's attention to this problem and inform them about the economic damages by awarding this negative prize.

Today, roughly 30 years after the Plagiarius prize was created, product and brand piracy have grown to an alarming extent.

Almost eight percent of the world's trade are imitated products.

The economic damage is 200-300 billion euros per year and it keeps rising.

In this process the Internet is regarded as the most important distribution channel.

Plagiarisms and illicit imitations can be found in all possible product sectors.