A “Told You So Article” on IP and China.
Techdirt has been warning for years that the West’s repeated demands for China to “respect” patents could backfire badly. In 2010, Mike pointed out that Chinese companies were starting to amass huge patent portfolios, which were soon used as weapons against foreign firms operating in China, most notably Apple. In another 2010 post, Mike wrote the following:
Huawei, the Chinese networking giant, has taken over the lead as filing the most international patents of any company. Just wait until American companies, whose execs complained about China “not respecting intellectual property,” start getting sued in East Texas for violating Huawei’s patents.
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In China, industrial property rights include invention patents, model, patents and trade marks. Apple Inc. is still being allowed to sell the both of the affected models while it appeals the ruling to an intellectual property court in China. The term for invention patents and model patents in China is 20 years and 10 years respectively from the filing date. This dispute can turn out the PCT patent search . The potential ban stems from a decision issued last month by the Beijing Intellectual Property Office. The agency found the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringed on a Chinese company’s patent for the exterior design
Thanks Travis for the textbook answer. My own 20+ years of doing business with companies in China is textbook/ documented laws often do not play out as the documented law stipulates.