Exhibition organisers urged to exclude offenders
Members of the European amusement equipment suppliers’ collective EAASI could withdraw their support for a number of industry trade shows if organisers do not take steps to exclude manufacturers that blatantly copy rides. That’s the threat made in a statement issued by EAASI concerning infringement of intellectual property rights.
“We invest a lot of energy and resources in research and quality to guarantee innovative and safe technology for our industry,” says EAASI operative secretary Gianni Chiari. “The know-how we have accumulated over one century represent our real capital.”
While many in Europe accepts the challenges of globalisation, “we cannot and will not accept wild competition that breaks all the rules and heavily damages our work and future. We believe there is an ethical code, even if sometimes it isn’t transferred into the legal system.”
Chiari concludes: “We will take all the necessary steps in the European Union to use the existing instruments and create new rules capable of defending our rights. Our members are evaluating the possibility not to participate in any future event that supports and/or does not reject this type of competition without rules.”
Many of the leading amusement industry exhibitions, including the EAASI-supported Euro Attractions Show, have already played host to Chinese manufacturers touting clones of European-originated rides. Nevertheless it’s a commendable move from EAASI, several committee members of which have had their own rides copied by various suppliers.
