Dürkopp Adler AG succeeds in front of “World Intellectual Property Organization” (WIPO) against a Chinese copyist

Dürkopp Adler AG, the largest European manufacturer of industrial sewing machines, has succeeded in a domain name dispute in front of the “World Intellectual Property Organization” (WIPO) in Geneva. For years the Bielefeld, Germany machine manufacturer keeps fighting against copyist on broad front.

After Turkish manufacturers acquired a doubtful reputation in the legal limbo between copying and modified engineering in the past, nowadays Chinese companies use German inventive talent “for free.”  Not only technical solutions, but also trademarks, pictures, color design, design elements, prospectuses and also complete user manuals are copied or made use of with the slightest modifications only.

In the meantime even more and more websites mimic the name of well-known trademarks or adapt them in the slightest way to fool trustful visitors to believe to be on the homepage of the original manufacturer. In a particular radical case a Chinese company “ Shenzhen DuroppAdler Satorius Co. Ltd. made use of the domain " duroppadler.com.” WIPO decided in March 2013 in favor of Dürkopp Adler AG that the domain has been registered and used by the Chinese infringer in bad faith to misdirect Dürkopp Adler´s customers. WIPO ordered that the domain has to be transferred to Dürkopp Adler AG.