Cookie molds highlighted for product plagiarism

One of the regular events at each annual Ambiente consumer goods exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, is the presentation of negative awards for product plagiarism. The list is compiled by the Elchingen, Germany-based Aktion Plagiarius e.V. anti-piracy organization.

Among 10 products named at the February fair were Italian chocolate and cookie molds made from silicone.

The original product is produced by Silikomart srl in Mellaredo di Pianiga, Italy. The company that Aktion Plagiarius accused of copying the design was Ningbo, China-based Ningbo Globalway Industry & Trade Co.

Although Silikomart produces white and colored LSR molds, the allegedly copied product involves a red mold but in the same shape as Silikomart's white Amorini100 molds.

The molds from Ningbo Global include the words "Siliko" and "Silikomart" like the original, but not "Made in Italy."

Aktion Plagiarius has a museum alongside Solingen railway station in Germany, where it displays 350 of the "most audacious" copied products alongside the original products. The organization aims to get plagiarized products removed from the market through its "name-and-shame" awards and by demanding producers and distributors to comply.

Although not necessarily instigated by Aktion Plagiarius, it is not uncommon for Ambiente exhibitor booths to be raided by German customs and copied products removed. As in the past, most 2018 negative award winners were from China — five out of the 10 awarded were from China. They were accompanied by copies identified as coming from Chile, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.

Although Silikomart produces injection molded articles for a wide range of industries, its core business is chocolate, cookie, cake and pastry molds in high-purity platinum-catalyzed liquid silicone rubber. Its adjoining Hangar78 school runs cuisine classes for professional chocolate and pastry chefs from all over Europe.

Other areas served by Silikomart's LSR moldings include medical applications, flexible lampshades, domestic appliance keypads, diving goggles and fashion bags. The company claims to be a leading Italian processor of LSR injection moldings.

HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Pvt. Ltd. in Edison, N.J., identified Silikomart in its April 2018 silicone baking mats market research report as one of 13 key baking mat mold suppliers to the market in China.