12 September 2008, Brescia – Leading seamless circular
knitting machine builder Santoni has taken steps to protect its new SDW8 double
needle bar raschel warp knitting machine through international design
registration. The SDW8 is already protected
by a family of 15 patents but design registration will help stop copycat
machine builders from building machines which look like Santoni machines but
which are in fact, inferior in construction and performance.
Speaking in Shanghai at the recent ITMA Asia + CITME, company
spokesperson Franco Sciacca told KnittingIndustry.com: “Lonati Group, the owner
of Santoni was so full of admiration for the design of the SDW8 that it wanted
to act to protect the design and form of the machine. When you create something
of great beauty, it is natural to want to protect it.” Sciacca likened the
situation to Coca Cola registering the design of its now iconic Coke bottle in
the early part of the last century. Competitors could try to copy the contents
but not the design of the bottle.
Santoni and other leading machine builders such as Karl
Mayer, Shima Seiki, Stoll and many others have all had problems with copycat
machine builders in China directly copying their machines or building machines
which are dressed up so that they can be passed off as being the same as the
leading manufacturer’s products. It is the latter practice which Santoni is
trying to counter with design registration as well as patent protection.
The recent ITMA Asia + CITME organisers tried to stamp out
copying but some Chinese machine builders still exhibited machines which were almost
identical in appearance to the machines of leading builders. It most cases they
were probably not infringing patents but they were blatantly and deliberately
trying to pass off their machines as being of the same quality and capability as
those of the leading machines builders.
The SDW8 double needle bar raschel machine was designed from
scratch by Santoni engineers with hosiery machinery backgrounds. Two prototype machines were shown
at the company’s in house exhibition, Santoni Days, earlier in the summer and will
extend the company’s seamless influence into the field of warp knitting.
Santoni has applied for global ornamental design protection
for the SDW8 which relates to protecting the aesthetics of an object. The subject
matter of design registration can be designs and models that are new and have
individual character. The registration can cover the lines, contours, colours,
form, superficial structure and or the materials used in the product.
The duration of the design or model registration in Italy is
5 years and can be extended for one or more periods of 5 years up to a maximum
of 25 years. It is possible to affect an international registration with WIPO
(World Organization for the Intellectual Ownership) or a national registration
in the majority of the foreign States and it is believed that Santoni may have followed
one or both of these routes. From 1 April 2003, a European Community Design allows one design registration application filed with one office (OHIM - Office for the
Harmonization of the Internal Market in Alicante, Spain),which has the same effects in all EU States.
Further reading:
Santoni
shocks by extending seamless concept into warp knitting
Santoni - Warp
Knitting Feature
Santoni
Warp Knitting Feature – Part 2
