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Press room - Bike Culture Quarterly Vol. 13
HP Velotechnik in the news: the following text is an excerpt from the English magazine Bike Culture Quarterly, volume 13 (August 1997). We recommend to order the complete magazine from the publishing house to read the whole story.
COURTS SLAM VELOFUN
German recumbent makers HP Velotechnik have taken Velofun, the producers of cheap Vietnamese-made imitations of their Wavey to court, and won an injunction against the sale or advertising of the imitations.
The Wavey prototype (see Encycleopedia 4, page 102) was deemed to have been so directly copied by the Velofun Waoo that there was danger of customers being deceived into buying the copy thinking it to be the original.
Although the design had been formally protected via the German Patent Office, the decision of the judge to stress the 'possible confusion' aspect means that other well-known designs, unprotected by patent or similar formal arrangements can have a good chance of fighting off their imitators in the German courts.
Further proceeding against Velofun are likely, as they also make bikes allegedly very similar to the HP Velotechnik Street Machine and Radius Peer Gynt. Shortly before the court hearing, Velofun launched a slightly-altered version of the Waoo and this new version will not be affected by the injunction.
HP Velotechnik are considering whether a new court order very soon. In the meantime, they warn that dealers can be liable for stiff fines should they attempt to sell one of the machines covered under the injunction.They also stress that since the Wavey prototype (photographed for Encycleopedia) was imitated by Velofun, there have been several important changes to the design, particularly a new seat and new detachable storage boxes.
Anyone tempted to buy a cheap copy will end up with a considerably inferior machine.
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