Perpetual Innovation

Category: subsidies

  • 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’

  • What just happened in solar is a bigger deal than oil exports

    What just happened in solar is a bigger deal than oil exports:

    Interesting how the BIG move in solar/wind in the USA is so tied to subsidies. At least for the next 5 years. But, soon, especially with the volume of growth encouraged by the subsidies, there will no longer be a need for subsidies.

    The really big loser all around is (dirty) coal. Once the health and environmental costs of coal are factored in, coal moves from our cheapest source of electrical energy to one of our worst. As well, wind and solar are improving in performance rapidly.

    And then there are the environmental factors of coal that start to get uglier and uglier once you start to count pollution, the health and safety issues and the contribution to greenhouse gases. Other types of energy like oil and natgas are increasingly throwing coal under the bus, too.

    So, renewable electrical energy could be really booming over the next 5 years with the continued subsidies. Those subsidies are being phased out; but it all looks like an excellent plan forward toward a more renewable USA.

    ‘via Blog this’