Hyundai IT booth raided at IFA

IFA 2008 saw a number of raids by customs officers
IFA 2008 saw a number of raids by customs officers

As we announced on Saturday, IFA, one of the world's largest technology shows, saw a number of its booths raided this year by customs staff looking for manufacturers using the work of others without authorisation.

Now new reports are coming in about which companies had actually been involved, and it seems that Hyundai, the South Korean manufacturing company, was one of the targets.

According to Reuters, Hyundai IT saw a number of its TVs taken away as it was "marketing unlicensed patented technology".

Speaking to Reuters, Norbert Scheidhauer, a spokesperson for Berlin's customs investigation office commented: "Hyundai had the chance today to show us that it had paid for the licenses - then we would have gone. But that was not the case. They could not prove they had paid so we took the devices away."

Biggest raid

It wasn't just Hyundai who was raided by customs agents, with a number of other "east Asian and European firms" showing off unliscenced patented tech. Hyundai, however, is the only name to have come out so far.

The raid saw the seizure of a number of goods, including: 170 televisions, 140 MP3 music players, 21 mobile phones and 57 DVD recorders.

Reuters added that after the raid, Hyundai IT's stand was left bare. Smaller raids have taken place in Germany this year, but the one at IFA is said to be one of the biggest ever of its kind.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.