FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5/16/06

Vista System International Institutes Legal Action to Stop Vista Wayfinding Sign System Piracy

Experienced sign experts at Vista System International developed the Vista Wayfinding Sign System in 2000. This system was the first to utilize MCFT (Modular Curved Frame Technology) that fills the gap between custom fabricated and modular sign systems. Thanks to the extraordinary success of the Vista Wayfinding Sign System, Vista System International is now recognized as an industry leader with 100+ employees and distribution all over the globe, including U.S. based operations in Sarasota, Florida. Unfortunately, Vista may be a victim of its own success since piracy of the Vista Wayfinding Sign System has been growing along with sales of the product line, and lawsuits were instituted as a result.

Product piracy is a severe problem for the signage and other industries. Trademarks, patents, copyrights and other commercial and design rights are systematically breached on a daily basis. Worldwide, this trend has a dangerous impact on the sign industry. It discourages future innovations and has reached such an extreme; in some countries complete industries exist almost completely on cheap copies of quality brands.

Vista System International management had no delusions that its product and brand will remain immune to this phenomenon, and in a way, it's a sign that they are leaders in our field. The Vista Wayfinding Sign System product is ‘often imitated but never duplicated’ in assorted inferior quality knockoffs in Brazil, China, Israel, Jordan, UK, Canada, and even the United States.

Thanks to marketing via a distributor network, Vista management has always felt relatively at ease in regards to its customers and prospects being able to at least easily identify the true and original Vista Product that can only be bought by professionals through authorized exclusive dealers, only one per country. To their surprise, Vista’s trusted Canadian distributor, The Gryph Group, has copied its system and has manufactured almost exact replicas of its extrusions and end caps and is passing them off as the Vista System product brand, supported by original Vista System printed literature. Vista System International has taken the necessary action to protect its product and to stop this activity for good. Vista recently added a Canada sales desk at its Sarasota, Florida facility, which will work to improve the service level of the Canadian customers to the high standards of Vista System International.

In an effort to study attitudes about product piracy in the signage industry, Vista System International has added a one minute survey for website visitors at http://www.vistasystem.com/ca-vote.asp whereby they can vote that they are against product piracy or they simply don’t care.

The Vista Wayfinding Sign System has grown from a humble origin in 2000 to encompass a wide range of products, running the gamut from standard and custom signage solutions for easy-to-install and update wall frames to projecting wall frames, directories, table stands, double sided pylons, suspended signs, post pylons, triangular pylons, and lit signage. All are produced using Vista’s proprietary state-of-the-art MCFT technology.

For further information, visit www.vistasystem.com or contact Sales Department at Vista System:

Vista System
1800 N East Ave. Unit 102
Sarasota, FL 34234
Phone: 800-468-4782 (941-365-4646 Internationally)
FAX: 888-316-5198 (941-955-2681 Internationally)
E-Mail: usa@vistasystem.com
Website URL: www.vistasystem.com