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Police raid Xeccon stand at Eurobike in Knog patent dispute

Australian light brand takes action following months-long copyright dispute

German customs police this morning raided the stand at Eurobike of China-based bike light brand Xeccon, which has been engaged in a copyright dispute with the Australian business, Knog, for several months.

Knog CEO Hugo Davidson accompanied customs officers to seize goods at the Zeppelin hall of the trade fair in Friedrichshafen, reports Cycling Industry News.

The dispute appears to centre around Xeccon’s Milan range of lights, which Knog insists infringes its patents and intellectual property (IP) rights due to their alleged similarity to the company’s Blinder series.

“We have already issued a number of cease and desist warnings in order to protect our IP,” the Knog CEO told the trade-focused website.

“This business approached our distributors offering to undercut our goods on several occasions, even following our contact.

“We have been aware that they are further chasing clients since and were set to exhibit at Eurobike.

“With that knowledge they have once been asked to remove all content infringing our patents, but have refused to do so. German customs have therefore come in to seize the goods this morning.”

According to Davidson, Xeccon could face a fine of €250,000 while the company’s executives could be jailed for up to eight years.

In July, Moore Large was announced as the exclusive distributor of the full range of Xeccon products in the UK, with the companies having previously worked together.

Previously, the Derby-based company had distributed Knog products here, but that relationship ended in April this year, with Silverfish taking over distribution of the brand.

According to Cyclingindustrynews.com, Davidson has said that a cease and desist letter was due to be delivered today to Moore Large regarding its relationship with Xeccon and that the company will also look to protect its rights in other countries.

On 25 May, Davidson made a visitor post to Xeccon’s Facebook page in which he warned potential purchasers of the Milan rights that he believed they infringed Knog’s IP rights, sparking a response from the Chinese brand that refuted his claims.

At the time of publication of this article, the link on Xeccon’s website to the Milan range was showing a 404 Not Found error, while links to other ranges were working properly.

In July, the company, which is based in Shenzen, close to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, posted a promotional video for the Milan series to Facebook featuring a Mr Bean look-a-like.

The same month, the company likened itself to the winners of the Euro 2016 football championship, proclaiming on its website: “Xeccon is getting through all the battles like the Portuguese national football team, always try and do our best to enter the final battle, we all believe that Milan will lead us to the champion time.”

With presumably unintentional foresight, it added: “Please see Xeccon Milan’s final battle at Eurobike 2016 in August” – though we suspect we won’t have heard the last of this dispute just yet.

http://www.xeccon.com/plus/view.php?aid=75he

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

Avatar
broadse | 7 years ago
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Quote:

However, I bought one of those CREE lights off Ebay, dual light thing, and it lights the road up like nothing I've had before and it was £20. Why should I buy something over £100 for little to no increase in performance and a brand name?

And the Chinarellos? Looking on Youtube some of them seem like decent pieces of kit. Whether they one day fail on a 50mph descent and you wish you'd bought something else is another matter.

 

I would say that the large number of knock of electrical items from China which have caught fire while charging and have been found faulty is reason not to buy them.  You run as much risk buying fake electricals as you do fake frames.

Avatar
tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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I have a Razor Deathadder mouse which took me a year to realise was a fake. And it was the second time I'd bought that exact same model. The fake was super close to the original, so responsive. (Oddly the fake lastest longer than the original which developed problems, but could be a lot of reasons for that, definitely not saying the fake is better quality).

 

The other fake that caught me out was an LED Lenser H7R.2 All the functions worked just as they should, including the modes. I got suspiscious though when I noticed battery housing was a bit fiddly to close, so I checked the QR code on the packaging - wouldn't scan! Emails, pics and serial no. off to LED Lenser confirmed that yes, it was a fake. Noticed fast enough to get a refund from the seller this time. 

 

Kept it though, used it for years. Fantastic head torch and free laugh

 

Anyway, I'm curious about these Chinese frames from Dengfu, Workswell etc that people are raving about. They look amazing set up in pics, being R5 and Supersix Evo copies but blacked out, so to be expected. 

 

Ordered a Workswell 066 last week. Going to build a winter bike out of it and smash it hard to see if these Chinese frames really are up to the job. Even asked them to paint the top tube red like the current Cervelo R5 (no logos or anything though) cos it looks class I think. No problem for them, 30 dollars extra. Think total shipped was around £390? For frame, fork, seatpost, bottom bracket installed.

 

Could have built a wet weather steed cheaper by just eBaying something for like 500 quid, and I nearly did, but nothing excited me. In the end I wanted to build and test something as well get a winter bike out of it.

 

WIll report back after built and putting proper miles on it in the wet.

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
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I think the main problem now is that the Chinese stuff isn't that shit anymore, so their 'copies' are more of threat to the main companies. Mix that in with the Chinese government dismissing all the cases of IP theft brough in China and you've got trouble. When Apple lose you know it's a problem.

However, I bought one of those CREE lights off Ebay, dual light thing, and it lights the road up like nothing I've had before and it was £20. Why should I buy something over £100 for little to no increase in performance and a brand name?

And the Chinarellos? Looking on Youtube some of them seem like decent pieces of kit. Whether they one day fail on a 50mph descent and you wish you'd bought something else is another matter.

Avatar
Welsh boy | 7 years ago
0 likes

Good advert for Xeccon, i am going to do an internet search for them now to see what bargains there are on offer.  Never heard of them before but I bet their website hits goes through the roof now.

Avatar
Dr. Ko | 7 years ago
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I recently had to retire 3 (three) Knog lights because the silicon rubber band broke.

So only if the Xeccon would brake at the same rate they would be a perfect copy. 

Avatar
joules1975 replied to Dr. Ko | 7 years ago
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Dr. Ko wrote:

I recently had to retire 3 (three) Knog lights because the silicon rubber band broke.

So only if the Xeccon would brake at the same rate they would be a perfect copy. 

There is a known issue with a batch of Knog lights, so they will most likely replace the lights free. Check with local retailer or call Silverfish directly. It's a shame they aren't distributed by Moore large any more as their warranty cover was excellent - not sure about Silverfish. It's interesting that Moore Large may be partially guilty in all of this, and that they used Xeccon to produce some of their own brand (One23) lights.

Avatar
marche replied to joules1975 | 7 years ago
1 like

joules1975 wrote:

Dr. Ko wrote:

I recently had to retire 3 (three) Knog lights because the silicon rubber band broke. …

There is a known issue with a batch of Knog lights, …

All of my Knog silicon bands broke. Retailer wouldn't accecpt to replace any…

SaveSave

Avatar
stenmeister replied to marche | 7 years ago
1 like

marche wrote:

joules1975 wrote:

Dr. Ko wrote:

I recently had to retire 3 (three) Knog lights because the silicon rubber band broke. …

There is a known issue with a batch of Knog lights, …

All of my Knog silicon bands broke. Retailer wouldn't accecpt to replace any…

SaveSave

 

The silicon band broke on my Knog Blinder Front so I cut one of my daughters hair bobbles and tied each end onto each of the broken silcon strands. Works great and has more stretch than the silicon.

Avatar
STiG911 | 7 years ago
10 likes

I'm actually quite happy about this - while it's one thing for competition to encourage customer choice and reduced prices, outright copying is just theft.

The attitude and sense of entitlement that a vast number of Chinese companies show towards world-wide copyright law (i.e. other peoples hard-earned) pisses me right off.

Avatar
stenmeister replied to STiG911 | 7 years ago
3 likes

STiG911 wrote:

I'm actually quite happy about this - while it's one thing for competition to encourage customer choice and reduced prices, outright copying is just theft.

The attitude and sense of entitlement that a vast number of Chinese companies show towards world-wide copyright law (i.e. other peoples hard-earned) pisses me right off.

]

 

Couldn't agree more. The number selling cheap Castelli rip offs on ebay is unbelieveable and I know that some people say they are good for what they do but they don't compare to original Castelli and are often linked to organised crime.

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