AusLeisure

Leading inflatable water sports equipment supplier Wibit Sports has been stung into taking legal action against imitation products – even moving against two businesses that had been operating fake Wibit inflatables in Australia.

Manufacturing and supplying commercial inflatable installations for over 18 years, Wibit Sports products are operated in commercial pools, resorts, camps and open water locations in over 60 countries worldwide.

With a commitment to quality and safety, Wibit invests in delivering a high quality product to clients, and has been a long time advocate of the European safety standard, EN 15649: Floating leisure articles for use on and in the water. Wibit Chief Executive Romann Rademacher is also Vice Chairman of the European Community Committee on safety for inflatables.

With Wibit products falling under Part 6 of the safety standard (inflatables for active use, for example water trampolines, inflatable climbing structures on the water, obstacle courses), Wibit have chosen the world renowned German TÜV test house to certify its products – to ensure that Wibit products not only meet, but exceed the existing standards.

This success has led to a number of manufactures imitating and copying Wibit’s products.

In a statement, the company explain “the success of Wibit products at resorts and pools around the world has resulted in manufacturers, mainly from the Far East, making illegal imitations of our products and in some cases even using our brand name.

“We take every single one of these infringements against our worldwide design patents very seriously and make use of all legal means possible in order to protect our intellectual property.

“We pursue the illegal works of these manufactures not only on the internet but also at trade shows, legally enforcing that they remove all infringing photos and products from their websites, catalogues and even from the water!”

In a statement to Australasian Leisure Management, Romann Rademacher added “currently we are fighting against numerous patent infringments worldwide.

“Often we find copies of our products floating on the water (and) these products are mostly absolutely unsafe copies (so) we see it as our obligation to remove these from the market to make sure there will be no accidents.”

For prospective customers, Wibit issue an information sheet for customers advising of what to look for in authentic Wibit Sports product, and also have a page on their website advising customers to beware of counterfeit products. The page can be viewed at www.wibitsports.com/about/authentic-wibit

For more information on Wibit, click here to contact the company via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Suppliers Directory.

To contact Wibit's Australian distributor, Robert Savell of Hydrocare Pool, click here to view the Hydrocare Pools entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

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