Police investigating patent infringement charges mounted fresh raids Friday at the CeBIT computering trade fair in Hanover, seizing satellite-navigation devices from three booths, according to dpa. The manufacturers were suspected of not having bought the rights to use patented features in the devices, which guide cars and people using signals from global positioning satellites (GPS). German police spokesman Stefan Wittke said, "we executed three search orders." Under German law, patent piracy is a punishable offence. Wittke said it deprives the rightful owners of millions of euros' income. In the biggest raid in the history of CeBIT, police seized MP3 players and similar devices from 51 booths on Wednesday amid accusations that manufacturers had failed to pay royalties to patent owners for audio-compression technology.
