CeBIT (Centrum er Büro- und Informationstechnik; German for "Centre of Office and Information technology") is the world's largest computer expo. It is held each spring on the world's largest fairground in Hanover, Germany, and is a barometer of the state of the art in information technology. With an exhibition area of roughly 450,000 m² (5 million ft²) and up to 700,000 visitors, it is larger than COMPUTEX and the no-longer held COMDEX. By 2007 the CeBIT expo attendance has shrunk to 'more than 200,000' from those all-time highs, it was held from 15 March to 21 March 2007. The 2008 expo dates were 4 March to 9 March 2008, with a notable event being the police raids of 51 exhibitors for patent infringement, something that is traditionally not a criminal matter in most jurisdictions, and is likely to further affect attendance figures in the future. The 2009 expo dates are 3 March to 8 March 2009.