March 2004
Hometech 2002: Yong Heng/Trispring
Legal action following the Berlin fair is now completed. After having their Preliminary Injunction invoked, Yong Heng/Trispring elected to proceed with the case on its merits. As expected, in an Oral Hearing in the Berlin Court on April 6th the case was thrown out.
Hometech 2004
Ningo Sunlight, exhibitors at the fair, were served with a Preliminary Injunction stopping them from distributing literature at the fair which STRIX believed unfairly and inaccurately described their products. Sunlight products ref SLT 101 are believed to infringe STRIX patents registered in China.
Beijing March 2004
CAQI the Chinese Agency for Quality and Inspection, held a seminar to describe some observations made as a result of a kettle survey conducted in Chinese retail outlets. Yong Heng/Trispring delivered some suggestions to the meeting which advocated the use of a control based on the STRIX design but fitted with a eutectic thermal fuse rather that a plastic thermal fuse as used in the earlier copy of the STRIX version. STRIX Ltd and Otter Controls, together representing 90% of the world kettle controls market, were present at the meeting as observers and expressed their support for the kettle survey and a wish to be included in the survey, to observe the test results and to be able to deliver their opinions to CAQI on any reasons behind any test failures. Based on the facts known to date, STRIX and Otter are of the opinion that the failures to the standards testing are attributable to poor quality heating elements supplied by non-compatible manufacturers.
CAQI stated that 80% of products bearing CCC certificates currently observed at retail outlets were unworthy of the certification.

China National Technical Committee TC 61
IEC TC 61 agreed to consider a proposal to further test thermal links in electrical appliances as proposed by the Chinese committee in Toulouse November 2003. This has been incorrectly interpreted in some areas as an imminent modification to IEC standards.
Due process will be observed with the proposal still being formulated in consideration of comments from members worldwide. STRIX supports the requirement to further evaluate thermal links. The UK National Committee has made recommendations to IEC. It is hoped that this proposal will be moved on at the next meeting in Kuala Lumpur in May 2004.

March 2004
Hometech Fair, Cologne
GERMAN customs seized 74 kettles suspected of carrying counterfeit STRIX controls at the recent Home Tech fair in Cologne. Other kettles were stopped by Customs on the way to the show, while some exhibitors avoided action altogether by displaying kettles without any controls at all.
The Home Tech seizures were made as STRIX learned that more than 200,000 kettles suspected of patent infringement and worth around €2 million at retail had been stopped at European ports.
For more information please refer to news article PRC021.

March 2004
STRIX is taking action against importers of Usha and Inalsa branded kettles for infringement of Intellectual Property Rights. Certain electrical products will be subject to mandatory certification from 1st September 2003.

March 2004
KTL, Korean Testing Laboratory, legally cancelled the product registrations against Chinese manufacturers Xin De and Rotor for electric kettles including Minoya MK-100, MK-170, Nova NK-1004, Taeyu TP-1800, TP-1200 and HEP-170A as of February 27, 2004. This was due to safety investigations. Xinde and Nova kettles were fitted with Sunlight controls, Rotor kettles were fitted with copies of STRIX controls of unknown origin.

January 2004
Continuing their crackdown on illegal electrical products, The Energy Commission supported by the Ministry of Domestic Trade continued their raids on major retail outlets in Malaysia. Stores in Johur Bahru and Muar were raided which followed raids in Shah Alam in November 2003. Major retailers have been sent warning letters to ensure that electrical goods sold have the required genuine safety approvals. In addition Sirim, the test and certification body are closely checking certificates for kettle controls which purport to have approvals, and imported goods are having their controls and certificates checked for validity.

Malaysia plays host to the IEC TC61 Technical Committee Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, May 10th - 14th. TC61 is the International Electrotechnical Commission Committee specifically responsible for the safety standards for Household Appliances.

March 2004
In November 2003 Yong Heng controls fitted to Bodin brand kettles appeared in Kruidvat stores in Holland and Belgium. These kettles have been tested and proven to be non-compliant with safety standards. The same kettle later appeared branded "Home Electronics" in Leen Bakker stores, imported into Holland by Boxford. Sales were again halted on safety grounds.

Keuringsdienst Van Waren, the Dutch Safety Authority are currently considering the case of Severin 3435 kettles on sale in Holland. These kettles were recently the subject of safety action in Germany where sales were ceased and the manufacturer issued a public safety notice. They are fitted with unsafe cordless connector manufactured by Yong Heng/Trispring from Shunde in China.