“Counterfeits are a major problem within the industry,” says Ursula Geismann, a trend expert from the German Furniture Industry Association (VDM). Many consumers think of purses, jewelry, and the like when they think of counterfeits. “Yet furniture counts among the most-copied products of them all.” And a “large legal no-man’s land” continues to exist within the furniture industry, explains the expert.
Furniture classics with well-known construction plans are copied particularly often. One such product is the freely-rotating steel pipe chair by the Hessian furniture designer Thonet. The firm consequently attempts to take measures against the counterfeiters, e.g. with the help of a lawyer specialised in brand and intellectual property rights. He searches for potential counterfeits on behalf of the manufacturer, for example at furniture exhibitions. Thorsten Muck, the business director of Thonet, confirms: “We pursue every case we learn about.” Just last year, the lawyer found a counterfeited chair at a Chinese booth at the IMM Cologne furniture exhibition and had it removed.
This might not have been so easy abroad, says Muck. “Unfortunately the protection of intellectual property takes different forms in different countries, even within the European Union.” The costs also play a significant role in such cases. Many companies refrain from taking legal measures to protect their rights – particularly in other countries – because they can by no means be sure of a successful outcome.
In addition to legal procedures, the Hessian furniture designer also utilises customer service in the fight against counterfeits, offering customers an authenticity check on their website. “The customers can send us pictures, and we tell them whether or not the depicted Thonet furniture is genuine,” says Muck. The free service is used frequently, and “a significant number of the alleged originals are fake.”
