China’s Patent-Lawsuit Profile Grows - WSJ:
China as a focal point of Intellectual Property, in the patent office and in the courts.
This law suit by WiLAN is interesting to see how the "assertion" of patents can move and shift.
Here's a little background on WiLAN from Wikipedia.
As you can see the company originally developed stuff so it would not be categorized as a Non-Practicing Entity (NPE), or Patent Troll in the ungracious term that is sometimes more appropriate for NPEs. WiLAN seems to be moving more steadily into the troll category.
Now with a war chest of some 3,000 patents+pendings, WiLAN is a strong international force.
In 2013 Daniel Fisher describes the Texas case where WiLAN had its core patents to the suit invalidated in "how to bag a patent troll". The stock (on the Toronto exchange) fell 33% to $3.25. In 2014, Apple won again in California.
Apple has won several law suits against WiLAN including a 2016 verdict. Look at the 6mo & 10yr stock chart on Yahoo, where it dropped from $3.40 to $2.30 in a few days at the end of July 2016. It now trades at $1.80.
The Investor profile is not so good, even with the Samsung licensing deal last year.
WiLAN continues to build its patent portfolio.
One of the things that a Patent Troll never wants to do, is actually go to court. Patents can be invalidated, remedies can be diminished, and the golden goose can give up the ghost.
Gotta love the trading symbol that starts with WIN (WIN.to).
There are several things that WiLAN could do to make it a much more legitimate player, and less of a troll. But those involve capital investments in R&D to invent, manufacturing to produce, sales and marketing to sell. That's a different business model. As long as investors are happy with investing in trolls, the trolls will rein supreme within their little serfdom of bridges.
'via Blog this'
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Friday, July 22, 2016
Stronger Chinese Patent Laws Also Help U.S. Companies - WSJ
Stronger Chinese Patent Laws Also Help U.S. Companies - WSJ:
China is blasting past the USA in the patent world. They have already been the most busy patent office in the world for several years.
But now they are the office with the most issued patents: 359,000 issues, up 45% from 2014. WoW!
And we, in the USA are down 1% to below 300k.
Interesting that they pay up to $4,500 (30,000 yuan) for patents. That's probably more than full reimbursement for the full patent costs in China. People could make money by taking patent applications elsewhere (non PCT) and file them in China. And, that's apparently what people did. It seems that the motive to get paid the government subsidies for issued patents would incentivate a nice bribery market.
China first stepped into the world of intellectual property in 1985 when joining the World Trade Organization.
Many foreign companies are able to sue, successfully, in China. But, of course, they would only sue once they knew they have a clear-cut case and inspected the political landscape.
I still think that part of the massive move to China for IP is to help cut off the infringers at both ends of the product pirating pipeline from China to USA/EU/Japan: manufacture, distributor/exporter, retailer, and seller.
"Serious obstacles" of IP in China for foreign companies by the State Department is, by all measures an understatement. However, there seems to be progress.
Note that this article is more complete than the one printed in the paper.
'via Blog this'
China is blasting past the USA in the patent world. They have already been the most busy patent office in the world for several years.
But now they are the office with the most issued patents: 359,000 issues, up 45% from 2014. WoW!
And we, in the USA are down 1% to below 300k.
Interesting that they pay up to $4,500 (30,000 yuan) for patents. That's probably more than full reimbursement for the full patent costs in China. People could make money by taking patent applications elsewhere (non PCT) and file them in China. And, that's apparently what people did. It seems that the motive to get paid the government subsidies for issued patents would incentivate a nice bribery market.
China first stepped into the world of intellectual property in 1985 when joining the World Trade Organization.
Many foreign companies are able to sue, successfully, in China. But, of course, they would only sue once they knew they have a clear-cut case and inspected the political landscape.
I still think that part of the massive move to China for IP is to help cut off the infringers at both ends of the product pirating pipeline from China to USA/EU/Japan: manufacture, distributor/exporter, retailer, and seller.
"Serious obstacles" of IP in China for foreign companies by the State Department is, by all measures an understatement. However, there seems to be progress.
Note that this article is more complete than the one printed in the paper.
'via Blog this'
Monday, March 2, 2015
Do Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin Have a Future? - WSJ - Crappy currencies
Do Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin Have a Future? - WSJ:
This is a good discussion about bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.
At the current exchange rate, $261 US equals about 1 bitcoin, or 1 USD equals .003 BTC.
During the Great Recession all countries worked hard to devalue their own currencies. A great way to stimulate the domestic economy is to reduce the value of the currency such that exports are stimulated. All right, not a great way, especially if every country in the world wants to do the same. So the currency decisions world-wide were a "race to the bottom" to achieve the most worthless currency fastest.
Of course the whole process is a little more complicated than that, the central banks (the US Federal reserve) can make hard decisions quickly, whereas congress, can't make any reasonable decisions, ever. Decades of federal deficits and trade deficits result in a devaluation of the currency (as the world economy/currencies move to equilibrium) provided you don't intervene somehow and manipulate the numbers.
China started out with a massive undervalued currency decades ago so that it could grow based on export expansion. Their HUGE savings rate has offset the US low savings rate by subsidizing our Walmart products imported from China. For half a century. At peak times, the yuan has been arguably 40% undervalued against world currencies; however, they have slowly but steadily let the yuan rise. As a result of the persistent trade imbalance, China has ended up with massive amounts of Yankee Dollar$, much of it going to fund the US Federal Debt (US bonds). They have however, been systematically dumping their US Dollars by buying up massive amounts of real estate (mines and factories and homes) around the world.
Japan has had a really strong currency that they finally devalued into submission. They devalued from about 80 yen to the $1US to about 120 today. That's a 50% devaluation of the currency over about 2 years. So now Japan can export again.
The Russian ruble is in rubble. For lots of reasons, but mainly because their income is mainly from oil and gas which has plummeted. Combine that with embargo types of penalties associated with their invasion(s) of Ukraine. Same problems for all oil export countries (OPEC) like Venezuela.
The Euro is in the toilet for lots o reasons, but now they are cranking up the quantitative easing efforts that the US has exercised so ?well? for the last 6 years. One of the last strong currencies in the world is the Swiss Frank, They finally abandoned all hope of sticking to the Euro and their currency revalued 20% overnight in mid January.
So, with all these crappy currencies out there, how is it that the USD is least crappy of the world currencies. One reason is, that as bad as the Dollar is, it is substantially better than the alternatives. Who wants to do business in the Yuan, or the Euro. There has been talk of a currency block by the BRIC countries: Brazil (with the real dropping), Russia (in rubble), India trying to get its country back on strong footing), and China (where everyone worries about a political uprising if/when their growth really does slow).
The US economy is growing strongly, so that's one good reason for having a stronger dollar; but only one. The rest have to do with the USD as the best of the worst. It is good to be less crappy than the rest of the world's currency, but not something to really brag about.
Since the USD is still the worlds choice for purchasing and global transactions, when the USD strengthens it crushes commodity prices. Therefore, the price of oil (in petrodollars) drops. That's not the main reason, but it helps. Even gold drops.
Gold, the best possible alternative currency is worrisome that it doesn't blast from $1,200 way past $2,000 per (troy) ounce. Gold is a great hedge to inflation-prone currencies. It seems like it should be harder to manipulate gold than all the other currencies of the world. But no, everyone is dumping their "safe" money into US treasuries where the return does not cover inflation. And, of course, the US stock market where the dividend yield tents to more than cover inflation and still leave room for upward capital appreciation (stock price going up).
No question, there is a bubble built on quantitative easing around the world. No question it will unwind. For those people/institutions who think it will happen gracefully, history has demonstrated that graceful re-balancing of bubbles is rarely the case.
That said, the US economy appears to be far stronger than most people give credit.
Sometime, somewhere, people are going to get tired of having their currencies and their welfare associated with it manipulated. That's gonna mean a rise of Gold and cyber-currencies as an alternative. Or, maybe everyone will go on believing that all is good in the fairy-tail land of Oz and there is no such thing as a crappy currency? I'll bet you can't wait for the Greek drachma to come back when the EU finally gets tired of their fiscal irresponsibility and kicks them to the curb?
'via Blog this'
This is a good discussion about bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.
At the current exchange rate, $261 US equals about 1 bitcoin, or 1 USD equals .003 BTC.
During the Great Recession all countries worked hard to devalue their own currencies. A great way to stimulate the domestic economy is to reduce the value of the currency such that exports are stimulated. All right, not a great way, especially if every country in the world wants to do the same. So the currency decisions world-wide were a "race to the bottom" to achieve the most worthless currency fastest.
Of course the whole process is a little more complicated than that, the central banks (the US Federal reserve) can make hard decisions quickly, whereas congress, can't make any reasonable decisions, ever. Decades of federal deficits and trade deficits result in a devaluation of the currency (as the world economy/currencies move to equilibrium) provided you don't intervene somehow and manipulate the numbers.
China started out with a massive undervalued currency decades ago so that it could grow based on export expansion. Their HUGE savings rate has offset the US low savings rate by subsidizing our Walmart products imported from China. For half a century. At peak times, the yuan has been arguably 40% undervalued against world currencies; however, they have slowly but steadily let the yuan rise. As a result of the persistent trade imbalance, China has ended up with massive amounts of Yankee Dollar$, much of it going to fund the US Federal Debt (US bonds). They have however, been systematically dumping their US Dollars by buying up massive amounts of real estate (mines and factories and homes) around the world.
Japan has had a really strong currency that they finally devalued into submission. They devalued from about 80 yen to the $1US to about 120 today. That's a 50% devaluation of the currency over about 2 years. So now Japan can export again.
The Russian ruble is in rubble. For lots of reasons, but mainly because their income is mainly from oil and gas which has plummeted. Combine that with embargo types of penalties associated with their invasion(s) of Ukraine. Same problems for all oil export countries (OPEC) like Venezuela.
The Euro is in the toilet for lots o reasons, but now they are cranking up the quantitative easing efforts that the US has exercised so ?well? for the last 6 years. One of the last strong currencies in the world is the Swiss Frank, They finally abandoned all hope of sticking to the Euro and their currency revalued 20% overnight in mid January.
So, with all these crappy currencies out there, how is it that the USD is least crappy of the world currencies. One reason is, that as bad as the Dollar is, it is substantially better than the alternatives. Who wants to do business in the Yuan, or the Euro. There has been talk of a currency block by the BRIC countries: Brazil (with the real dropping), Russia (in rubble), India trying to get its country back on strong footing), and China (where everyone worries about a political uprising if/when their growth really does slow).
The US economy is growing strongly, so that's one good reason for having a stronger dollar; but only one. The rest have to do with the USD as the best of the worst. It is good to be less crappy than the rest of the world's currency, but not something to really brag about.
Since the USD is still the worlds choice for purchasing and global transactions, when the USD strengthens it crushes commodity prices. Therefore, the price of oil (in petrodollars) drops. That's not the main reason, but it helps. Even gold drops.
Gold, the best possible alternative currency is worrisome that it doesn't blast from $1,200 way past $2,000 per (troy) ounce. Gold is a great hedge to inflation-prone currencies. It seems like it should be harder to manipulate gold than all the other currencies of the world. But no, everyone is dumping their "safe" money into US treasuries where the return does not cover inflation. And, of course, the US stock market where the dividend yield tents to more than cover inflation and still leave room for upward capital appreciation (stock price going up).
No question, there is a bubble built on quantitative easing around the world. No question it will unwind. For those people/institutions who think it will happen gracefully, history has demonstrated that graceful re-balancing of bubbles is rarely the case.
That said, the US economy appears to be far stronger than most people give credit.
Sometime, somewhere, people are going to get tired of having their currencies and their welfare associated with it manipulated. That's gonna mean a rise of Gold and cyber-currencies as an alternative. Or, maybe everyone will go on believing that all is good in the fairy-tail land of Oz and there is no such thing as a crappy currency? I'll bet you can't wait for the Greek drachma to come back when the EU finally gets tired of their fiscal irresponsibility and kicks them to the curb?
'via Blog this'
Sunday, July 14, 2013
SustUcation: Education eZine on Innovation, Sustainability and Competitive Advantages: To Cheat or not to Cheat... The China Syndrome.
SustUcation: Education eZine on Innovation, Sustainability and Competitive Advantages: To Cheat or not to Cheat... The China Syndrome.: So there's a BIG to do about cheating in china. WOW, what's the chance. Here's a fun video... China uncensored. http://www.yo...
Thursday, February 21, 2013
IBM and China. #1 in the world of Patents
IBM is again the patent king with the most patents issued. Now just under 6,500 issued in a single year. That's issued, not applications.
IBM
This is a fun article about the big patent companies and IBM's Watson system beating out the best and the brightest on the show Jeopardy.
In the meanwhile, China has moved up to the busiest patent office in the world! It was only a couple years ago that they were 5th and not long prior to that they they were not a signatory on IP treaties!..
IBM
•Celebrated 101 years since its first patent
•In 2012 was its 20th year as most US patents
•In 2012 received 6,478 patents! (not applications!)
•Spent $6B on R&D … roughly $1m per patent.
•IBM makes $1B+ per year on IP sales/licensing!
=> That is almost pure profit$!
=> That is almost pure profit$!
This is a fun article about the big patent companies and IBM's Watson system beating out the best and the brightest on the show Jeopardy.
In the meanwhile, China has moved up to the busiest patent office in the world! It was only a couple years ago that they were 5th and not long prior to that they they were not a signatory on IP treaties!..
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