Against the backdrop of coal and steel, it will be easy to celebrate really well, accompanied by the thirty-strong "RuhrGbeat" rock orchestra. From a culinary viewpoint, the guests will be spoiled with specialities of the region.

Ticket reservation: EUR 29.- per person including food from the buffet and two drinks.
Tel. +49.(0)201.7244-843, fax +49.(0)201.7244-435 or e-mail to marcel.gockeln@messe-essen.de

For this reason, we are expressly pointing out that there are NO business relationships between suppliers such as

• Commercial Online Manuals S de RL de CV (exhibitor directory: Expo Guide)
• Construct Data AG, Austria (exhibitor directory: Fairguide)
• Matic Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Germany
• etc.

Our official service partners are DVS Media GmbH for the fair catalogue and KOMpool GmbH for the on-line exhibitor directory.

We do not give any other suppliers either your exhibitor data or the permission to contact you!

We would particularly like to refer you to section 4 "Stand setup regulations" (ff.) in order to enable you and your stand neighbours to construct your stands without any "nasty surprises".

In the section 4.3 "Stand heights" you will find information on the maximum building height in the various halls. If you require the address of your neighbour to obtain written consent, you can get this by e-mail from Mr. Gockeln (e-mail: marcel.gockeln@messe-essen.de).

Special mention must be made of section 4.7 "Stand design" as this contains important information for designing your stand.

As regards the section 4.7.1 "Appearance", we would like to add that special care must be taken with end and island stands to ensure that the stand sides on the visitor aisles are transparent and may only be closed up to max. 50%. We would ask you to pay special attention to this.

All stands are, in principle, subject to approval. The form A.01 must always be completed and submitted to MESSE ESSEN GmbH six weeks prior to the start of the event (31 July 2009) at the latest.

We will be only too pleased to answer any questions you may have regarding the technical facilities and stand approval.

Your contact in the technology sector is:

Mr. Klaus Oppallach
Telephone: 0201/72 44 - 274
Telefax: 0201/72 44 - 483
Email: klaus.oppallach@messe-essen.de

For this reason we have changed the appearance and form of the entrance ticket voucher. People are already informed on the voucher in short and precise wording about the procedure for registration / activation.

A detailed explanation can be found on the Internet. A highly conspicuous reference is made on our website - www.schweissen-schneiden.com. The new entrance ticket vouchers no longer offer the possibility of completing them by hand. All personal details are entered on the Internet. The online recording in the run-up to the trade fair dispenses with the complicated and time-consuming registration procedure at the fair. This means your visitors save time.

Registration / activation as such then works as follows:

The visitor goes to our website and clicks to the navigation point "Activate entrance ticket voucher". There he enters the code which is on the reverse of the voucher under "Ticket Code". He then completes the rest of the form.

After he has provided all the details, the data protection provisions must be accepted; he then sends it off, finished. He obtains directly on the same Internet page the message that activation was successful and is requested to bring the voucher with him to the fair. It is really quite simple.

Following the fair you no longer get the vouchers which were handed in and which you have to evaluate one by one but you receive an e-mail with an Excel table with all the data of the customers who visited the SCHWEISSEN & SCHNEIDEN 2009 using the entrance ticket vouchers you sent out. Your account is then settled on the basis of these digital data.

With this procedure we want to provide you with high-quality visitor data, on the one hand, and minimise waiting times for the visitors to the fair on the other. On-site registration is, of course, also possible but considerably more time-consuming for your customers.

If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Christiane Palapies.
Tel.: +49(0)201 - 72 44 583, or e-mail: christiane.palapies@messe-essen.de.

Product piracy means the illegal reproduction/copying of products. A breach of the law exists when industrial property rights are infringed due to reproduction/copying. Property rights may be, for example copyrights, patents, trademarks, utility and design models.

Copyright protects personal intellectual creations which include, in particular, works of literature, science and art. They may also include design, graphics and advertising slogans. Copyright arises at the moment of the creation of the work and does not therefore need to be registered.

A patent protects technical properties of a product or process. It must be registered at the patent office and, on the granting of a patent by the patent office, the patent holder is given an exclusive right to use the invention for the lifetime of the patent.

A trademark is a special, legally protected character which serves to differentiate goods or products of one supplier from those of other suppliers. A trademark can arise through use; this requires a high degree of familiarity with the capability of assigning the trademark to a certain supplier. Moreover, a trademark can arise through an entry in the trademark register.

The utility model is also known as the "younger brother" of the patent. The protection conditions for the utility model are similar to those of the patent. In contrast to patent law, however, processes cannot be protected in Germany by utility models. The protection effect is mainly the same as with the patent. On the other hand, the requirements are slightly lower and the period of protection shorter.

A design model, like the utility model, protects a certain product. In this case, however, the protection does not relate to the technology but to the external shape of a whole product or part thereof.

In addition to the above-mentioned rights, claims may also arise from the German Unfair Competition Act if the above rights do not take effect but special circumstances exist according to which reproduction/copying is unfair.

2. How can you protect yourself even prior to a trade fair?

Examine in good time whether you are the holder of one of the above-mentioned industrial property rights for your products. If you are not in possession of such an industrial property right, you should obtain information in good time about the acquisition of such rights, for example from a lawyer or patent lawyer.

If you are in possession of appropriate industrial property rights, you should always take the relevant documents with you to the fair. You should also have at your disposal at the fair documents on any cease-and-desist letters you have written and on legal disputes, in particular rulings. With these documents you can prove your rights and contribute to asserting your rights quickly and effectively.

If you are already aware prior to the fair that reproductions/copies are to be exhibited/offered and they are being imported into Germany, you can, for example, initiate a border seizure procedure. The central office of industrial property rights at the Federal Revenue Authority Southeast in Munich (Zentralstelle gewerblicher Rechtsschutz bei der Bundesfinanzdirektion Südost in München )is responsible for this. You can obtain further information and addresses on this issue here:

www.zoll.de (Zoll interaktiv/Customs interactive, Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz/Industrial property protection)

Moreover, regardless of the importation into Germany prior to the start of the fair, you can also engage a lawyer, who preferably has his registered office at the fair venue, so that you can receive help as quickly as possible.

3. How can you protect yourself during the fair?

Should you discover during a fair that another exhibitor is infringing one of your industrial property rights, it is advisable to initially warn this exhibitor, preferably through a lawyer, and request him to issue a cease-and-desist declaration.

Should the other exhibitor not issue such a declaration, you can equally apply for a court injunction, preferably through a lawyer. However, an application for such an injunction is only advisable if you obtained knowledge of the infringement shortly before or during the fair. If you have already had this knowledge for some time, a court would certainly reject the need for legal protection through a court injunction. The infringement of your industrial property rights would be prohibited by the court through a court injunction.

4. How can Messe Essen help?

First of all, this service information should serve as initial help for you.

Should you have received concrete evidence of an infringement of industrial property rights, we can already write to the exhibitor prior to the fair and refer him to the Conditions of Participation. In this context we would, however, like to draw your attention to the fact that we cannot assert your rights as we are not entitled to do so by law.

Should you have any further questions on this matter, we will be only too pleased to assist you.