China’s Patent-Lawsuit Profile Grows – Troll Tolls Too – WSJ

ByBizMan

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…

Stronger Chinese Patent Laws Also Help U.S. Companies – WSJ

ByBizMan

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….

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Do Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin Have a Future? – WSJ – Crappy currencies

ByBizMan

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…

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Falling Chinese Coal Consumption and Output Undermine Global Market – WSJ

BySustainMe

Falling Chinese Coal Consumption and Output Undermine Global Market – WSJ: Finally, Finally, Finally… China has finally started to cut back on it’s production and use of dirty coal. China now consumes far more than half of the world’s coal. It’s a perfect time for them to do so, with all energy prices so low, the Chinese economy growing slow(er) and the costs/consequences of pollution from coal becoming more and more conspicuous. It is also…

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Pain in the Ash: Spill spews tons of coal ash into NC Dan River – CNN.com

BySustainMe

Spill spews tons of coal ash into North Carolina’s Dan River – CNN.com: Oh what a pain it is! … A Pain in the Ash, so to speak. One of the dirty little secrets of Coal is the ash!. The massive 2008 spill in TVA should have been a bit of a wakeup call. But this phone has been ringing for centuries. There’s impurities in coal, including sulfur and heavy metals like lead and arsenic….

China Pollution Is Blanketing America’s West Coast – Business Insider

BySustainMe

China Pollution Is Blanketing America’s West Coast – Business Insider: Oh boy. We export raw materials and coal to China so they can make finished goods and export them back to us in the West/USA. They don’t have the safety worries that we do… Some of the externalities affect only China, but many affect us all, especially those countries and environments closer to the mainland of China. “Cities like Los Angeles received at least an…