JCB takes legal action over Asian 'copies' at Bauma

JCB said it had taken legal action during Bauma to prevent three unnamed Asian manufacturers from showing telehandlers and backhoes that JCB said were copies of its products and infringed its patents.

The company applied for court orders in Germany resulting in preliminary injunctions being served against manufacturers who were exhibiting the machines in Munich. JCB said that as a result of its action, the machines had to be either removed from the show and impounded or concealed.

Tim Burnhope, JCB's group managing director of product development and commercial operations, said: "JCB will not tolerate blatant copying of its machines or infringement of internationally-recognised patents and in every instance will act quickly and decisively to stamp out such unfair practices.

"JCB invests many years and many millions of pounds developing and innovating new products and it's clearly unfair for any manufacturer to then simply free-ride on the results of that investment and research. As an industry we all have to unite to prevent such unlawful practices."