Meizu in Trouble - Raided by German Police

CmdrCord

The news on Heise Online just got an update: heise online - CeBIT special - Polizeiaktion gegen mutmaßliche Produktpiraten [Update]

Basically, it says a meizu manager told the dpa (a german news agency) that the raid had nothing to do with the miniOne, but instead with another MP3 player (no product name given). She said there were "discussions" regarding licenses.
Later today, the booth was re-opened, and the miniOne was on display again (but not the MP3 player).

Tomorrow I will go to CeBIT myself, I hope they don't shut down the booth again

DimaMP4

I feel sorry for Meizu. :/

KB79

So, wait a minute. Nothing to do with Apple, no patents violated, booth was re-opened?

:D:D:D

Even better!

Correct me if I'm wrong but in the end, doesn't this create the impression to the general public that Meizu is legit? Mmm, small Chinese company, accusations of piracy, confiscation but in the end acquital.
Joe Schmoe doesn't want the details (Sisvel in stead of Apple, iPhone vs M8, UI, mp3 and what more), he just heard someone (Apple ) can't make accusations of piracy stick.

If only this was a political campaign...I'd go for the position of Meizu spindoctor

hotboxx

Ok then, good news, if they closed the Meizu boot for the M8, the German police should also close the Samsung boot for their F700.

Now I start to think about a conspiracy against Meizu.

Some facts:

1) 1 day before Cebit, there is a rumour spread by Engadget that there will be no M8

2) 1 day before Cebit, Engadget shows a letter from the German police where they announce that they will fight piracy at Cebit

3) at Cebit day 1, engadget spreads a video that shows how "good" (but read bad) the M8 GUI is.

4) at Cebit day 2, engadget spreads the news that the Meizu boot was closed because of the M8 because of piracy.

As a extra link No 2 with No 4 and the circle is complete.

Is engadget sponsored by Apple? Does Apple pays for the 1st class plane ticket, hotel, transportation and local escortgirls?

Traps

Maybe you sould talk to Tangmu.. it seems that he can't go there and do his Meizu interview anymore.. :/

--> Meizu Me CeBIT Interview 2008: Post your questions!

sere83

Hey CmdrCord by any chance could you do the official CeBit interview? Tangmu unfortunately cannot do it.

Meizu Me CeBIT Interview 2008: Post your questions!

maybe you could ask all the questions?

CmdrCord

Obviously Engadget covers the miniOne more on the negative side e.g. by emphasizing that it's an iPhone rip-off - but then, who in their right mind would disavow that it indeed aims to be just that?

I'm not advocating Apple here, I really think they should have some serious competition. Making a technically equal or superior product at a much better price (as was the case e.g with the M6) will make some people reconsider Apples pricing, at least. But it still has this "copycat" label, which is perceived bad - it might even keep some people from buying because of the negative image.
After all, Apples products are all about image (you know that kind of people, they will tell you that you "just couldn't afford a real Apple iXYZ"). [/rant]

CmdrCord

sere83, I'll see what I can do!
Finally a chance to test the voice recording capability of my M6

Now, if only I had a printer here at home But I think I'll find a way to get those questions asked, maybe even take some pictures of the booth.

sere83

that would be great! I'm not sure any one else from the forum will be attending so any info you can get i'm sure would be much appreciated!

Suriv

The news February 14, 2008

The Raw Feed: Chinese Theft o' the Day: Stolen iPhones, Plans


Apple may have thought that he had been Meizu having no knowledge of MiniOne.

looyea

yeah, that's true!
and guess what? the engadget reported that meizu booth was banned cause IPhone!? ridiculous! what they thingking about?!

hotboxx

Engagded is there to do some Meizu bashing, that's all.

nice2know_u

Gizmodo also claims it's because of Apple and the iPhone...

CmdrCord

What's really bad: many news sites will now lose interest in the story.
An "iPhone clone" going down is interesting for the masses - whereas a manufacturer having trouble with some patent management company is not

hotboxx

Gizmodo source can be...........engadget

Unregistered

Wong could have just thrown out some different excuse to not make them look so bad, who knows...

sere83

no chance. Apple don't even have a booth at cebit. A number of other companies got their boothes closed down too. It is all to do with Italian company Sisvel the holder of the mp3 patent who are nortorious for chasing people down in conjunction with the mp3 patent. Whatever these blogs say it is clear Meizu has little regard for their opinion, they are too focused on their own business to read this propeganda. Why would Wong give a damn about a couple of s**ty blogs when he's got a domestic market of over a billion people to market the M8 too? Once the M8 hits the domestic market in China the iphone is buried in china. Americans are dillusional about their importance, without china they would not survive.

M47Z

Maybe it's because of the (eventually) copierd mp3s on the prototype of m8...
But this would be a weak reason, I believe aplle got its hand in it...

EDIT: M8 is again on the cebit (;
The raid was not because of M8 but of M6 or M3 (im not sure yet)

SimonePMP

Hi guys, this is my first post, but I'm both a Meizu fan and an IT journalist since a long time. I'm also italian and I know Sisvel history quite well.

I saw Sisvel in action with these court actions and seizure at shows now more than three times. It happened at IFA with Sandisk Malata and many others. It happened even at MediaWorld shops in Italy for Creative Labs products, it happened at customs in Genoa Port for a container of Oregon Scientific Players and so on.

This time (I'm at Cebit these days) they are targeting the few companies that are still resisting this "licence" thing. Legally speaking the patent protection/licence that Sisvel is asking is sound and correct, but the spirit with which it is done and enforced is seen by others like something not in line with the Standardization committees (Fraunhofer has other rights but doesn't play the patent game like Sisvel, neither Thomson does...). Someone in the industry is calling them "Patent trolls".

One of the rules for the patents involved in standards is that the access to the patent should be granted to everyone and at a fair price. Sisvel is asking a fair price per unit (30 US cents per audio channel) but there are other strings attached that make Sisvel scheme quite hard for small companies or manufacturers that sell world wide (also in countries where the enforcement of the patent could be more difficult).

Anyway, I was at Gigabite booth while the german police was taking the G-Smart mobile phones for the same reason while Avermedia Booth was cleaner than a surgical room... This is not Meizu specific... is "market/product" specific!

I can tell you that many asian manufacturers of devices that could be hit by Sisvel are now just offering OEM/ODM so that the Licence responsibility falls on the customer and not the manufacturer. They are the "quick learners".

Someone may object that Windows Mobile DOES HAVE an MP3 deconding in Windows Media Player and if you look at the licencees list you'll find MS just for XBOX and MediaCenter, but not for these operating systems...

It is however correct that Dane-Elect pays the licence for the M3 and M6 sold in Europe, but Sisvel is looking for the royalty on EVERY SINGLE device manufactured and this is why keeps an eye also on the brands that are licenced just for a specific market. They more or less "demand" the licence agreement with the manufacturer and not single local distributors. Licencing to distributors is an easy way to figure out who is producing what and how big is their market.

As for the latest news, Sisvel is now also into CDMA2000 and DVB-H... so new troubles for anyone producing products complying to those standards!

My bottom line is: Meizu will be able to sell their products throug distributors that get the licence, but they will be more and more targeted by these actions to be persuaded to licence directly...

If some of you says "hey, just .60 usd per unit... is not a lot", just remember that for manufacturers the licencing does imply that this royalty is paid retroactively for ALL the devices made/sold since the last 3 or 5 years... no matter where they were sold. This piles up to quite some money and would be definitely an "unexpected additional cost".

These are my "5 cents".

I'll pass by Meizu booth again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to see what happens. More reports will follow!

In the meantime the number of seizures will increase: the guy going around the show had quite a massive pile of printouts whith names and products to take away from the show!

parena

Thanks for this very clear explanation, SimonePMP. Guess we know a lot more about what's going on at CeBit.

Also, seems I need to swallow my words about it being logical their booth was shut down, since I was assuming it was about the copy-that-iphone part.

*swallows*

There, that wasn't so hard. Now, back to skinning my M6-with-mp3-patent-payed-by-Dane-Elec.