The statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are repeated at the end of this article
On the stage of international authoritative awards, it should be a glorious moment for the winners, but there is such an award, and its winners are not present every year.
The trophy shape is full of irony, a swarthy dwarf, only the nose is golden, the highest mockery of the winners, every year, Chinese companies in China have been at the top of the list for many years.
This is the Golden Nose Plagiarism Award, an award that makes people look up.
01
Gold Nose Plagiarism Award
The original intention of the "Golden Nose Plagiarism Award" is very simple and clear, that is, it hopes to arouse the public's deep concern and attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, so that everyone can realize the value and importance of original achievements.
The prize is presented with a dwarf-shaped trophy with a large golden nose that symbolizes dishonest acts of profiteering from the intellectual property of others.
Every year, the German Anti-Plagiarism Association exposes some products that seriously infringe intellectual property rights based on corporate reports, and selects the list of companies that have won the "Golden Nose Plagiarism Award".
The whole selection process is quite strict and standardized, and enterprises first need to collect their own original design products, plagiarized products, and relevant evidence materials for rights protection litigation, and then formally apply to the association to participate in the evaluation.
After accepting the application, the association will take the initiative to contact the enterprise suspected of plagiarism and give it a chance to explain, and if the enterprise can produce convincing evidence to prove that there is no plagiarism, it can be removed from the shortlist.
On the other hand, if the company cannot make a strong defense, it is very likely that it will be listed as one of the winners of the "Golden Nose Plagiarism Award" that year, and will be exposed and condemned around the world.
This award is held once a year and has a history of 47 years, and in recent years, many products of Chinese companies have repeatedly made the list, which has aroused widespread attention and discussion at home and abroad.
There is no doubt that the improvement of the awareness of intellectual property protection is a major issue that every country and region must pay attention to in the process of innovation and development. It is in this context that the "Golden Nose Plagiarism Award" came into being.
Through an exposé-based review mechanism, it aims to punish those unscrupulous enterprises that infringe on the intellectual property rights and interests of others, maintain a fair and orderly market competition environment, and promote the improvement of the awareness of intellectual property protection in the whole society.
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Chinese companies on the list
In the arena of global innovative enterprises, Chinese enterprises have long had serious shortcomings in intellectual property protection. The annual "Golden Nose Plagiarism Awards" are the best warning.
The award, created by the German Anti-Plagiarism Association, was intended to punish unscrupulous companies that wantonly plagiarize the intellectual property of others. In the selection for decades, Chinese companies have frequently ranked in the forefront and won many top prizes.
Taking chainsaw products as an example, the design of a Chinese company's chainsaw products is almost identical to that of a well-known German brand, and the trademark text is almost completely copied. After careful comparison, except for a few differences in details, it is almost difficult for ordinary consumers to distinguish the authenticity of the two.
Another example is the braking device for automobiles, the original products use high-quality and safe materials, while the Chinese imitations are obviously slightly inferior in quality, and there are potential safety hazards.
Even daily necessities are no exception, an iron pot in Germany was copied, and the overall shape and details are almost a one-to-one replica, but there are differences in quality.
Even children's toys, which seem to be products that do not attract much attention, have suffered, and the children's excavator toys of a German company have been completely copied by Chinese companies.
This kind of 100% counterfeiting has completely ignored basic integrity and respect, causing an uproar in the outside world. Foreign media have ridiculed China as a veteran on the issue of plagiarism.
In the results of the 2019 selection, the list of the top ten "plagiarism kings" of that year was unexpectedly swept away by Chinese companies and took all the seats! This was undoubtedly a slap in the face, and we couldn't breathe.
In the face of public opinion condemnation and doubts from the outside world, where do the Chinese people have any confidence at all? Instead, I felt extremely ashamed and cramped. With thousands of years of civilization history, what are we pursuing?
These negative phenomena do reveal the inadequacy of China's awareness and management system for IP protection. Many companies tend to imitate rather than innovate independently, and lack real core competitiveness, which has actually deviated from the right track of development.
It is gratifying to note that in recent years, plagiarism has gradually decreased, from 6 Chinese companies on the list of "Golden Nose Plagiarism Awards" in 2020 to only one in 2023. This reflects the government's efforts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and create a healthier environment for business innovation.
03
Why is this happening
Some dishonest merchants, without investing in research and development, only need to simply imitate the production, the product price is much lower than the genuine product, but can earn considerable profits.
For example, in the pet supplies market, the Hungarian original dog cover is sold for as much as 251 yuan on the e-commerce platform, while the copycat version of a company in Shenzhen is only 59 yuan, which is 76% cheaper than the original product.
The control cabinet dual-key carefully developed by the German Kenipac company has a market price of about 300 yuan, but there are similar products produced by some domestic manufacturers on the market, and its price is only 19 yuan, and the price gap is as high as more than ten times.
In the face of such huge profit margins, who can be indifferent? In order to make this money, some small workshops simply abandoned their respect for the rules and wantonly plagiarized the wisdom of others.
Once the owners of intellectual property rights are held accountable, they will not suffer, because it takes a long time to protect rights across borders, and the hope of winning the lawsuit is too small.
Under the dual temptation of profits and low illegal costs, some unscrupulous merchants have extended their plagiarism tentacles to the international market, relying on China's strong supply chain to produce imitation products at low cost, and then dump them overseas at high prices to make huge profits.
This has undoubtedly seriously damaged the image of Chinese products abroad, and people have equated "plagiarism" with "Made in China", and their impression has been greatly reduced.
Fortunately, in recent years, under the crackdown at home and abroad, these counterfeit products have been rare in overseas markets. But just when we thought they were sweeping the floor, they found a new shortcut: domestic consumers!
Now, these dishonest elements hide their hideous face of greasing and whitewashing on e-commerce platforms. They sell counterfeit products at high prices on the platform, from the packaging design to the product description, all of which copy the official authentic products as they are.
It looks genuine on the outside, but in fact it is seriously backward in quality, and poor consumers are deceived by these "knockoffs" and buy these products that are not too cheap.
This kind of plagiarism will undoubtedly hurt the e-commerce industry further, and how can the platforms in it respond? Continue to turn a blind eye and let this false information run rampant, or do you take decisive action to get rid of this cancer?
Maintaining a fair and orderly market environment is a daunting task for regulators and operators, and we expect them to give wise answers and measures to effectively protect the rights and interests of consumers and prevent the future of e-commerce from being eaten up by plagiarists.
Resources
[1] Huanqiu.com: On February 20, 2010, Germany awarded a plagiarism award to Chinese products, saying that 54% of the counterfeit products came from China