The jury awarded the three main prizes to particularly obvious copies of a glasses frame, a spatula, and a security latch. Two of these three awarded products were copied by Germany-based companies. In addition, particularly blatant copies of a chandelier, a pedestal fan, a dust pan and brush, a Tupper kitchen utensils set, and floor and furniture protectors also garnered recognition.
As in the previous year, all of the alleged plagiarists were notified about their nominations in writing before the award ceremony. This is supposed to give the businesses the chance to comment on the accusations. In fact, some of the imitators, afraid of being publicly exposed by the awards ceremony, attempted to come to an agreement with the manufacturers of the original products. In some cases, remaining inventories of the copies were taken from the market, cease and desist agreements were signed, and suppliers were revealed.
The negative “Plagiarius” prize has been awarded to manufacturers and retailers of particularly blatant copies and counterfeits since 1977. The goal of the non-profit organisation Plagiarius e. V. is to promote public consciousness of the extensive negative effects of product piracy, and to make the industry, politicians, and consumers aware of the problem.
In doing so, “Plagiarius” does not make any claims regarding the legality of the plagiaries. Instead, the prize serves to raise awareness for the problems of the affected firms, as “simple one-to-one copies are uncreative and morally reprehensible.” The association emphasizes, however, that “legal competitor products that follow a trend – but are visually and technically sufficiently different from competitors‘ products to promote fair competition – are expressly welcome.”
