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Meanwhile, in Shenzhen no one gives a fuck about patents. I wonder how patent abuse and no patents will compare in the long run.

eagletusk 9y ago
But government and self censorship is a real problem. Interesting juxtaposition.
- sfifs 9y ago
  Maybe it isn't. The ability to freely say whatever you want has been something that's only been true in the US this century and in Europe after the world war (where still some kinds of talk is restricted). Historically this condition has never been true.
greglindahl 9y ago
No, China is entering the era where trademarks and patents begin to mean something. Unfortunately the first time you run into that it might be because someone in China trademarked your company name, but hey...
mncharity 9y ago
Not my field, but I've heard it suggested that China-style government corruption is better for innovation than US-style. When influence buying is less pervasive, more concentrated in large incumbents, the resulting regulatory capture, and associated intellectual policy (patents and copyright), places more of its anti-competitive emphasis on reducing the threat of innovation. One of the concerns about TPP, and especially its investor-state dispute settlement (sort of regulatory-capture insurance), was globally institutionalizing the less innovationally-productive style.
- narrator 9y ago
  In China you know who is in charge. In the U.S you get all sorts of weird laws and policies and it's all a bunch of proxies implementing them. There's no one to negotiate with because the people setting the priorities and agendas of the proxies are hidden and the only solution is to lobby your own proxies to move around on the chessboard.
- mncharity 9y ago
  Given the silent downvote, I note that I heard it at a talk by a Harvard economic development professor. But it was said as an aside, and I'm unclear on whether it was within their own research focus/expertise. And Harvard econ profs don't exactly have a great long-term trackrecord at avoiding nonsense. So speculative, but not news media random noise. Speculative wrt China - the US description should be relatively uncontroversial.

eagletusk 9y ago

But government and self censorship is a real problem. Interesting juxtaposition.

sfifs 9y ago
Maybe it isn't. The ability to freely say whatever you want has been something that's only been true in the US this century and in Europe after the world war (where still some kinds of talk is restricted). Historically this condition has never been true.

greglindahl 9y ago

No, China is entering the era where trademarks and patents begin to mean something. Unfortunately the first time you run into that it might be because someone in China trademarked your company name, but hey...

mncharity 9y ago

Not my field, but I've heard it suggested that China-style government corruption is better for innovation than US-style. When influence buying is less pervasive, more concentrated in large incumbents, the resulting regulatory capture, and associated intellectual policy (patents and copyright), places more of its anti-competitive emphasis on reducing the threat of innovation. One of the concerns about TPP, and especially its investor-state dispute settlement (sort of regulatory-capture insurance), was globally institutionalizing the less innovationally-productive style.

narrator 9y ago
In China you know who is in charge. In the U.S you get all sorts of weird laws and policies and it's all a bunch of proxies implementing them. There's no one to negotiate with because the people setting the priorities and agendas of the proxies are hidden and the only solution is to lobby your own proxies to move around on the chessboard.
mncharity 9y ago
Given the silent downvote, I note that I heard it at a talk by a Harvard economic development professor. But it was said as an aside, and I'm unclear on whether it was within their own research focus/expertise. And Harvard econ profs don't exactly have a great long-term trackrecord at avoiding nonsense. So speculative, but not news media random noise. Speculative wrt China - the US description should be relatively uncontroversial.