The Canadian company Skycope claims that it did not sell SkyEye drone detection systems to the Russian Technological University (MIREA).
The company stated this on its website.
On November 15, Militarnyi reported on the discovery of documents confirming the purchase of the SkyEye system.
According to the contract discovered on the public procurement website, the auction was announced on May 11, and on June 7, the University received the Canadian system.
The company claims that this is the first time it has heard of the Russians having SkyEye, and suspects that the news might be fake or the product may be counterfeit.
The company also suggests that the system could have been obtained illegally for reverse engineering.
“In light of our products or counterfeit versions of them appearing in Russia or on Russian websites, we hereby declare that as a Canadian company, we adhere to Canada’s export restrictions. We do not provide products and services to countries where they are prohibited,” the statement reads.
This counterfeit issue started several months ago when the company learned that an unidentified third party had created and was operating a counterfeit website at “skycope.ru”.
A third party has copied the website content, including trademark, product images, and information. Skycope’s lawyer sent letters for legal action against it.
The website was taken offline immediately without any response from the owner. After the counterfeit website issue, Skyscope has implemented technical countermeasures to prevent the misuse of its products in countries restricted by the Canadian government, which includes Russia.
“We receive numerous inquiries for our products and services. We carefully identify the source of each request and conduct our due diligence to ensure we are not engaging with any of the countries restricted by the Canadian government,” Skycope said.
Skycope emphasizes that it continues to actively assist Ukraine and is open to collaborating with potential dealer partners to deploy systems to Ukraine for life-saving purposes.