James Delahunty
8 Mar 2010 20:09
Apple Inc. is believed to have played a part in raids carried out at this year's CeBIT expo in Germany. Along with Siemens and Sisvel, Apple is believes to have been behind the forced shut down of an exhibitor's booth at CeBIT on Friday. The unnamed company was showing off Netbooks and e-book readers.
The unnamed company is alleged to have violated patents held by the three. On Thursday, lawyers from Siemens, Apple and Sisvel reportedly had visited to the booth and levied a €10,000 fine in advance of the raid. On Friday, German police moved in and forced the unnamed exhibitor to shut down.
The raid was not the only one to happen at CeBIT this year either, according to reports. Moves such as these are common at trade shows like CeBIT, as bigger tech companies use their patent portfolios to essentially "shut up" a smaller competitor that might not get as much exposure in a particular market.