Reasserting again our opinion that at the end the companies will decree the success of one of the two events, we publish the press release we received.
Court of Milan: the unique and original Zow is in Verona.
Giobbi, Exposicam and Fiera di Pordenone ordered to refrain from continuing to present themselves to the market as the prosecution and the ninth edition of Zow. Ordered to pay 50 percent of legal costs and expenses and to publish a press release in the nati
To rectify all the news repeatedly appeared on the website www.exposicam.it, in articles and press releases published in the press and the communications sent by ExpoSicam to all exhibitors regarding the decision of the Court of Milan of 27th February 2009 on the well-known situation determined by the move of the show “ZOW – International Exhibition of Components and Accessories for the Furniture Industry” from Pordenone to Verona
We would like to specify that:
– The Court of Milan found that ExpoSicam, Carlo Giobbi and Pordenone Fiere have committed acts of unfair competition, since “in breach of principles of professional correctness … they have taken undue advantage of the role entrusted to them by Survey for the organization and implementation of the ZOW trade fair in order to acquire ZOW’s exhibitors and visitors, have convinced them that SICAM indeed would have been the ninth edition of the trade fair already known as ZOW …. and encouraged them not to follow the event organised by Survey”;
– The Court therefore ordered Carlo Giobbi, ExpoSicam and Pordenone Fiere to refrain from “presenting the SICAM trade fair as the continuation of the previous fairs “ZOW and in any case from “connecting the event called SICAM with the event called ZOW, already organized by Survey Marketing + Consulting from 2001 to 2008”;
– The Court ordered to Carlo Giobbi, Pordenone Fiere and ExpoSicam to arrange for publication of the court order on the daily newspaper “Il Gazzettino di Venezia” at their own expenses;
– the press release appeared on “The Gazzettino di Venezia” on 1st March 2009 does not comply with the order of the Court of Milan, since the counterparties have never been authorized by the Court to add to the release an incomplete and unilateral summary of some points of the reasoning of the court order, which summary actually deprives the press release of the punitive contents sought by the Court;
– the wording “the ZOW Case is closed ” and similar ones appeared on the specialized press do not reflect the true situation: the two orders of the Court of Milan are not judgments. Instead, they are interlocutory measures rendered in interlocutory proceedings. By nature, they do not contain any final finding and will have to be reviewed in the course of ordinary proceedings. The case is still open, then.
As to the merits, the Court did not deny that the SICAM fair has taken many factual elements of the ZOW fair, but it found that such a behaviour is not punishable as a matter of law.
While we reserve the right to commence action with the ordinary judicial Authorities in order to better protect our rights, we think that the difficulty of obtaining legal protection for innovations is a well-known experience to those who invest in research and innovation, and we therefore trust that these Innovators have a natural and strong tendency to recognize and prefer the original product and choose accordingly.
On the other hand, the best confirmation of the validity of the ZOW formula comes from the market (see the list of exhibitors in 2009 available on-line at http://www.zow-verona.it/en/exhibitor/exhibitors-list.html): the exhibitors still remain faithful to the quality and experience of ZOW although, as mentioned by the Court, the organizers of SICAM have tried to “acquire ZOW’s exhibitors and visitors and have convinced them that SICAM indeed would have been the ninth edition of the trade fair already known as ZOW …. and encouraged them not to follow the event organised by Survey”.
