Aktion Plagiarius

Rido Busse

17/11/88. (Sala 104)

From 17 November – 10 December 1988

In 1977 Rido Busse decided to establish a negative “Prize” for those plagiarized products that emerge on the market. Since then he has “awarded” 56 different objects of which some examples are shown.

THE STORY OF “PLAGIARIUS”

In 1977, during a visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the industrial designer Rido Busse found an exact copy of a scale he developed in his own studio two years earlier in the booth of a company from Hong Kong. The plagiarism quality was considerably worse; it even affected the accuracy of the scale.

While the fair continued, Rido Busse made the decision to award the “negative” award and use the resulting publicity in the media to make the deplorable state of these issues known to the public and the legislators.

The prize given to the winners is a typical garden gnome in colour black with a golden nose, symbolizing the profits made from plagiarism. The first winner was the Lee company from Hong Kong. There was no jury for this first prize and it was awarded at the Busse Design Ulm booth in the Hannover Fair during a press conference.

In 1960, the Association of German Industrial Designers decided to expand the foundation of “Plagiarius” and to continue as a registered company.

The jury has been formed by a group of economists, industrial designers, the President of the Patents Office, lawyers and business executives.

Barcelona, November 1988.