Mr. Duckeck, what is your role as Director Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty at the company?

Together with my seven employees, we handle all tasks related to patents, designs, and trade­mark protec­tion. This includes pursuing patent infringe­ments. I make sure that coun­ter­feit ebm-papst prod­ucts are taken off the market and don’t damage our good name.

How does this work exactly?

We work on this with an agency called CorSearch, whose soft­ware – which also uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence – scours the internet for offers of ebm-papst prod­ucts. The adap­tive soft­ware recog­nizes coun­ter­feits, which then end up on a list. We look at this list and decide which adver­tise­ments need to be deleted.

Is that how it always works?

No, some­times we are also approached by customers who are familiar with the quality of our prod­ucts but are suddenly expe­ri­encing prob­lems. An example of this was when a customer contacted us to complain that the fans they had installed were too loud.

We found out that the supplier had unknow­ingly purchased coun­ter­feit ebm-papst prod­ucts on the internet because we had a supply bottle­neck at the time. Actu­ally, despite all the frus­tra­tion, we took it as a compli­ment, as the customer was used to a higher level of quality from our prod­ucts.

How many coun­ter­feits do you pursue on a routine basis?

In collab­o­ra­tion with CorSearch, we reviewed around 70,000 online ads in 2021. Of these, CorSearch reported 60,000 to us as poten­tial fakes, and 42,080 were removed.

Are there some­times false alarms?

That’s quite a rare occur­rence, but it does happen. We once had a case where a trainee placed pictures of coun­ter­feit goods in an offer on the internet. However, when we checked, we found that the trader was autho­rized and that the issue with the pictures was just an over­sight.

Update: ebm‑papst uncovers Chinese coun­ter­feiting network

ebm‑papst, leading manu­fac­turer of fans and motors head­quar­tered in Mulfingen, Germany, is once again demon­strating its tire­less commit­ment to protecting its customers and safe­guarding its brand repu­ta­tion. In September 2024, inves­ti­ga­tors uncov­ered a Chinese factory selling coun­ter­feit ebm‑papst prod­ucts. About a year ago, the company success­fully raided a coun­ter­feiting factory. Every year, coun­ter­feiting and the asso­ci­ated inves­ti­ga­tions cause several hundred thou­sand euros in economic damage and total costs for ebm‑papst.

At the begin­ning of July 2024, ebm‑papst again received a report from a long-standing customer who had received prod­ucts from the company that were of low quality compared to previous purchases. Ralf Duckeck, Vice Pres­i­dent Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty of the ebm‑papst Group, and his inter­na­tional team responded imme­di­ately to this suspi­cion of product coun­ter­feiting and tried to find out further details.

“Coun­ter­feit prod­ucts pose a signif­i­cant threat to the integrity of our brand and the safety of our customers. Coun­ter­feit prod­ucts may contain infe­rior mate­rials and may not meet the strict quality and safety stan­dards that we guar­antee for our orig­inal prod­ucts. We are there­fore committed to fighting coun­ter­feiting and protecting our customers,” explains Duckeck.

Despite several hurdles, such as false addresses, exten­sive inves­ti­ga­tions led the team to a suspected coun­ter­feiting work­shop in Foshan that was pretending to be an ebm‑papst branch. The suspi­cion against this work­shop was confirmed after coun­ter­feit ebm‑papst labels were found in the waste. Further inves­ti­ga­tion revealed that the oper­ator of this coun­ter­feiting work­shop was already respon­sible for the factory closed by ebm‑papst in 2023 and had now relo­cated and signif­i­cantly expanded his company premises. The oper­ator in ques­tion was able to evade the Chinese author­i­ties in 2023, but was already known to the police, having been caught engaging in similar activ­i­ties in 2016.

Based on the inves­ti­ga­tion results and the resulting burden of proof, the Foshan Public Secu­rity Bureau (PSB) was informed. In September, the PSB decided to carry out an unan­nounced raid together with the ebm‑papst team. The raid was successful, and those respon­sible for the coun­ter­feiting oper­a­tion were arrested.

The activ­i­ties of the coun­ter­feiting oper­a­tion in Foshan included the purchase of used, orig­inal ebm‑papst fans from over­seas, which were recon­di­tioned and then rela­beled. The recon­di­tioned fans were sold as new, orig­inal prod­ucts. A total of four people were arrested in the raid, including the oper­ator of the coun­ter­feiting oper­a­tion and his wife. With this arrest, ebm‑papst was able to take down a profes­sional coun­ter­feiting network. In addi­tion, 301 fans and 500 ebm‑papst labels were seized during the raid. Inves­ti­ga­tors were also able to secure prod­ucts and labels from manu­fac­turers in similar indus­tries.

The case has since been handed over to the public prosecutor’s office in China. It can be assumed that he will receive a prison sentence as well as a fine.

“Combating coun­ter­feiting is a top priority for protecting our brand repu­ta­tion. Our customers rely on the quality and reli­a­bility of ebm‑papst prod­ucts, and it is our aim to main­tain this trust. The successful inves­ti­ga­tions under­line our commit­ment to protecting our customers from infe­rior imita­tions. Our goal is to ensure that they always receive the quality and perfor­mance they expect from ebm‑papst – no compro­mises, no coun­ter­feits,” empha­sizes Dr. Klaus Geiss­do­erfer, CEO of the ebm‑papst Group.