LMAO, I guess there'll be a few copyright lawyers out of work soon. It's also ironic that most of the iJunk that comes from Apple is even made there.
Apple Doesn't Own the iPad Trademark in China
- Thread starter The Wooster
- Start date
you mean Trademark infringement, it is a whole different beast than copyright infringement.Absolutionis said:
It hard to tell without looking at the actual sales contracts, which will remain private to actually know if Apple truly was infringing. Especially when the contracts are in several different language. I know a lot of foreign companies add clauses to the foreign translations just to screw over other companies. This happens even in the game industry. I know an Australian game studio who were in business with the Austrian game publisher. The game studio got the rights to a US companies' Intellectual Property. The publisher sent two copies of contracts to the game studio
ne in English and one in German. The German contract was suppose to be an exact translation of the English contract, but they had put in there that the publisher claim the rights to the US IP. After the game fell behind schedule, the publisher backed out. When the studio went to get a new publisher, they were told they didn't have the rights the IP to the game anymore. Eventually the courts found that the contract was invalid making the publisher pay out ten million(euros?), but that was years after the game studio had closed.
Gotta love that Chinese "robber economy" at work.
China made their own rules explicitly so they could break those of everyone else, and the hilarious thing, is that everyone else *agreed to it*.
Had that not been so, then Apple wouldn't be looking at a billion dollar fine for selling something THEY DESIGNED AND BUILT.
And people wonder where America's money went...
Steve Jobs must be spinning in his grave.
China made their own rules explicitly so they could break those of everyone else, and the hilarious thing, is that everyone else *agreed to it*.
Had that not been so, then Apple wouldn't be looking at a billion dollar fine for selling something THEY DESIGNED AND BUILT.
And people wonder where America's money went...
Steve Jobs must be spinning in his grave.
Sarcasm? I genuinely don't know what else the fake '[sa]' tags might be.Aeshi said:
(Something Awful was the second thing to spring to mind)
I know right! How dare they make their own laws in their own country! Why, I ought to go out there and make them hang the American flag, because screw them and their thousand year history!dubious_wolf said:
/sarcasm
An oversight by the UK firm in buying these trademarks off a Chinese company caused all of this. I doubt blaming China and their cra~zy laws is going to solve anything.
Incidentally, how's that continued battle over the first one to copyright rectangles going?
I think what he meant was, that Chinese companies continue to violate copyright and trademark from western products, and the Chinese government keeps protecting them so we can't sue them.Dooly95 said:
If it was the other way around, if some Chinese company would start selling Apple-copied products, any legal action from our side would fall into deaf ears.
But if Apple makes a mistake, the Chinese use our legal system -which they completely ignore if it suits them- to sue Apple...
Its hard to call this anything but a shakedown.
The chinese attitude towards intellectual property is so one sided as to be a joke. As in, they have no intellectual property that isn't stolen or infringed. See: their giant gundam immitations, world of warcraft themepark, fake apple stores, and the gigantic output of fake consumer goods.
A lot of western manufacturers are wising up-- don't send the designs for your molds to china-- sure they'll produce the goods cheap, but they also will set up a second production line to produce imitation copies and sell them directly.
The chinese attitude towards intellectual property is so one sided as to be a joke. As in, they have no intellectual property that isn't stolen or infringed. See: their giant gundam immitations, world of warcraft themepark, fake apple stores, and the gigantic output of fake consumer goods.
A lot of western manufacturers are wising up-- don't send the designs for your molds to china-- sure they'll produce the goods cheap, but they also will set up a second production line to produce imitation copies and sell them directly.
You still know that even if Apple manage to salvage this somehow and salve the name - the Chinese market will still release rip-off versions of the iPad (like they already have) and no one will flinch or be taken to court. iPid, Upad... etc.
If it is in their own interest? Of course!henritje said:
I bet the "UK firm" Apple bought the rights off sold them the international trademark but only "bought" the rights for everywhere except China. And surely this "UK firm" was just a ltd and was disbanded soon after. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Companies will get crap like this as long as they are dealing with China. Produce your stuff in China? Bam, ripoffs everywhere. Can't even talk about corporate espionage because they are basically giving them the blueprints! Try binding them to copyright laws? Bam, something like this happens. Chinese investors (aka their government) have been filing massive amounts of patents and trademarks over the last years. The whole copyright/trademark thing was bound to backlash and the Chinese have been preparing for this for a long time. This is just the peak of their patent/trademark trolling business. Some companies have already moved their production away from China because of this and going there in the first place was very short-sighted and will cost them a lot of money in the future.
I bet tech firms all over the planet are double-checking their trademarks right now. Chances are they bought some of them from UK dummy companies as well.
This is why Bethesda and Mojang have to wrangle in court so much over the word "Scrolls." If they don't this kind of mess can happen.