"Plagiarius 2021" for counterfeit doorstop series

Originals and counterfeits look deceptively similar at first in six doorstop models. Only on closer comparison, minimal differences are discernible in three of the stoppers. These are counterfeits of the multiple award-winning "Screw or Glue" doorstop series from the German brand manufacturer Wagner. The Czech supplier Walteco, which was awarded the „Plagiarius 2021“ for this, put the counterfeit products on the market. This negative prize has been awarded annually for 45 years by Aktion Plagiarius e.V. to manufacturers and dealers of particularly brazen imitations.

The trophy is a black dwarf with a golden nose. According to Aktion Plagiarius e.V., the latter symbolises "the immense profits that unimaginative imitators literally earn at the expense of creative and innovative companies". This refers to imitators like Walteco, whose website says: "Product management and purchasing are constantly searching for new products and solutions with their own designers and trend scouts". The easiest way to do this is to steal other people's ideas ... While Wagner invests a lot of innovative power, time and money in development and brand protection until its new products are ready for the market, the product pirates have quite unabashedly copied the registered design of the successful doorstop series in all its essential features. This is a clear case of consumer deception with counterfeit brand products, which has now been pilloried via "Plagiarius" and made known to a broad public.

Ellen Wagner, Managing Director of Wagner, on the subject of "imitation": "We consistently protect the design and technology of our product innovations, yet we, like numerous other original manufacturers, are confronted with counterfeits time and again. We defend ourselves against this with all the means at our disposal. Because as a brand, we have a responsibility to the consumer for the quality and safety of our products."