German authorities raided Wednesday morning 51 exhibitors at CeBit in Hannover, Germany. Of the accused, 24 were from China, 15 were from Taiwan or Hong Kong, nine were from Germany, and the others came from Poland, the Netherlands, and Korea.

The cause were alleged patent violations such as a portable MP3 player from Chinese manufacturer Meizu Technology Ltd which also makes a iPhone-like phone, the MiniOne, with better specs than Apple's gadget. The quadband GSM/EDGE iPhone look-alike features WLAN (802.11b/g), Bluetooth, a 3.4 inch touch screen, a 3-megapixel camera and a 667-MHz processor "based on" ARM11 (check photo).

Hanover police told AP that around 180 officials have conducted searches at the CeBit booths. The raids were triggered by an ever-rising number of complaints by patent holders that exhibitors have on display gadgets which infringe on their patents. Nearly 70 boxes with gadgets, documents and advertising material were confiscated for the time being.

The targeted merchandise included devices with MP3, MP4 or digital video broadcast functions, as well as DVD players and blank CDs and DVDs, AP reports.

Similar raids could not have occurred in similar electronics shows here in the United States. The U.S. patent law does not grant law enforcement the power to seize merchandise which is alleged to violate patents. Law enforcement can only confiscate certain goods because of intellectual property violations, such as pirated software or music.

Apparently, the exhibitors targeted by raids opened their booths back with some missing products, which were probably listed in patent infringement complaints.