China is on the spot-light again. It is all about intellectual property protection this time. A near-bankruptcy company in Shenzhen is suing Apple for more than one billion US dollars for the iPAD trademark. IP protection is relatively new in China, and it was born as a natural product of market oriented economy. The Patent Law was only introduced in 1984, and latest major revision was in 2008. The Trade-mark Law was born in 1982, and major revision was in 2001. In contrast, the US federal patent law started as early as 1790. In the long Chinese history, "sharing" was an encouraged ethics. If you know how to do something or how to make money, you would share the secrets with others, especially schoolmates, friends, relatives etc. In my home province, regional economics has been formed due to this "sharing culture". If one family makes shirts, there will be whole village making similar shirts in one year, and the municipality will produce 70% of the shirts in the world in 30 years. But the Chinese government has realized the importance of IP protection. China needs western technologies, and the West needs IP protection in China. The Chinese government has been trying its best to beef up its efforts in IP protection. But the Chinese reality has been falling short in meeting the western expectation. The Chinese market, however, is too big to lose. For those US companies interested in China, there are many practical ways to protect your "secrets".
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