China Turns From 'Pirate' Nation To Giant Patent Troll
from the what-goes-around,-comes-around dept
The West's constant push for stronger patent protection in agreements like TPP and ACTA is based on the belief that they will then be able to deploy their supercharged patents against the rising economic might of China. What this completely overlooks is the fact that China will be able to turn the self-same strengthened patent regime against the West by acquiring patents and suing Western companies. Techdirt has already reported on how China is providing financial incentives for its companies to file huge numbers of patents overseas. Now it has taken another step in bolstering its patents strategy against the West by setting up a company called Ruichuan IPR Funds. Here's a press release that the site Citizen Outreach has issued on this move:
With China's creation of Ruichuan IPR Funds, imagine the assault that U.S. companies will face. Reports are that this government-sponsored troll has been seeded with $50 billion to acquire patents that will be used in actions against U.S. companies. Inasmuch as trolls aren't sticklers for the quality of the patents they purchase, Ruichuan IPR Funds will be able to build a massive arsenal for use in harassment litigation.
A little hyperbolic perhaps, but essentially correct -- and completely foreseeable. The Chinese government's move is part of a larger story that recapitulates America's own evolution from a "pirate" nation that fuelled its industrial revolution by ignoring the law and appropriating Western Europe's patented ideas, to one using the same legal instruments against European companies.
China will now be in a better position to manipulate markets, handicap the overseas competition, and push itself to the head of the pack in the global patent wars.
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Filed Under: china, competition, innovation, patent troll, patents, trade agreements, trolling
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Of course lawyers are just hired guns, and will be more than willing to take China's money to submit frivolous patents and file extortionary lawsuits. It's "the American Way."
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 20th, 2014 @ 12:15pm
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You know the part where private corporations can sue a government for damages regarding rejected patents etc? And how the US is trying to get that into all treaties?
Imagine a world where China owns patents involved in just about everything. One of their private corporations then has the power to overrule pretty much any other country on the planet on pretty much any topic.
Don't like melamine in your baby formula? Well, the FDA can't do a thing about it, because preventing China from selling their patented melamine-included baby formula in the US would cause irreparable harm to their private corporation that specializes in developing and producing the formula.
Think about it.
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Woah woah woah woah now, what do you mean the US is infringing on all of China's patents? We can't have that going on then.
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Maybe, just maybe when the Chinese government is at your door with a ram, ready to bust it open, meaningful changes to the law will be made.
One can only hope.
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There one problem regarding meaningful changes. The US has imposed that total perverted patent system on a lot of other countries through international treaties... even if the US wants to change it, they simply can't (do it easily).
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2) There is also the problem of collecting against a nuclear armed bully.
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It can be useful
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Maybe we'll get saner patent legislation when the big players are being eaten alive via their own bullying tactics.
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TPP
So go China - troll away! But please file all your ridiculous patent claims against US companies, while sparring those smaller countries from grief. If China does this, they'd be doing the world a favor, even if few yet realize it.
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Re: TPP
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SHOW the us government software patents are useless.
And they just encourage legal extortion via patent trolling.
They do nothing to help innovation or grow the economy .
And china was the country that forced microsoft to publish its android patents which will allow other
mobile phone companys to work around them or to challenge them in court .
Maybe china is not stupid enough to
adopt stupid us laws on patents ,corporate
whistleblowers ,
which only help large companys or encourage patent trolling and increase drug prices .
What other large country seeks to force other countrys to adopt its laws ,apart from the us?
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Our patent system could wind up letting China hold US based R&D hostage through patents held on component technology.
Any US-developed tech that happens to escape China's control won't be trusted by anyone anyway, thanks to the NSA's collect-it-all overreach.
Even something novel and secure could result in massive lawsuits by corporations based in friendly nations via ISDS, if it could potentially harm their future profits in some tangential way.
Yay, progress!
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Let's start with... um well... wait, uh... maybe you can go first here? Please?
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Anyways here is a list of Chinese inventions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions
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http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/06/its_official_china_is_becoming_a_new_in novation_powerhouse
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579320544231396168
I'm not commenting on whether or not that characterization is accurate (I have no way of knowing), but there does seem to be a lot of people who disagree with the notion that nothing innovative comes from China.
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