Product and brand piracy are a serious threat to the economy and consumers. This is why the Plagiarius campaign awards the annual Plagiarius negative prize, which aims to bring intellectual property theft into the public eye. In 2022: pressure gauges, ball bearings, wheel trims, cutlery sets, clothing and a food bar.

Product and brand piracy is a lucrative billion-dollar business. The pandemic has further fueled the problem. According to Europol, counterfeit products are increasingly being advertised and distributed via e-commerce platforms, social media and instant messaging services. The unscrupulousness with which counterfeiters are increasingly offering extremely low-quality counterfeits that endanger the health or lives of users is alarming, according to the Plagiarius campaign. The structure of perpetrators ranges from unimaginative competitors to professionally organized counterfeiting gangs and organized crime. The damage caused by counterfeiting to buyers and innovative manufacturers is massive. It is essential to promote and protect creative ideas and know-how.

Plagiarius: Against brazen theft of ideas - for innovation and fair competition

On April 25, 2022, the Plagiarius campaign presented its Plagiarius negative award for the 46th time to manufacturers and retailers of particularly brazen plagiarisms and counterfeits. The virtual award ceremony and press conference was broadcast from the Baden-Württemberg Patent and Brand Center in Stuttgart. The date and location were deliberately chosen to draw attention to the annual "World Intellectual Property Day" on April 26. In her speech, this year's laudator, Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of the State of Baden-Württemberg, emphasized the outstanding importance of intellectual property for securing jobs, prosperity and competitiveness.

According to the Plagiarius campaign, its aim is to raise public awareness of the questionable - and in some cases criminal - business methods of product and brand pirates and to sensitize industry, politics and consumers to the problem. Before the annually changing jury selects the winners, the alleged plagiarists are informed of their nomination and given the opportunity to comment. The jury is not interested in branding legal competitor products, but rather in taking a critical look at clumsy 1:1 imitations that deliberately look confusingly similar to the original product and show no creative or constructive contribution of their own.

The trophy of the Schmähpreis is a black dwarf with a golden nose. The latter symbolizes the immense profits that unimaginative imitators literally make at the expense of creative and innovative companies. Plagiarism is not a trivial offense.

Plagiarius prizewinners 2022 at the Museum Plagiarius in Solingen

From April 29, the Museum Plagiarius will be showing more than 350 Plagiarius award winners from a wide range of industries in its exhibition - with a direct comparison between the original and the plagiarized product. http://www.museum-plagiarius.de

The 2022 winners of the Plagiarius negative prize can be found here in the picture gallery.