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Chinese DVD Makers Sue Over Royalties

Posted by timothy on from the drain-on-society dept.

Viceice writes "Afterdawn.com and DigiTimes are among many other news outlets reporting that DVD player makers from China are suing the 3C DVD Patent Group over royalties on patents held by the consortium. The suit accuses 3C alliance for price-fixing, unlawful tying of essential and non-essential patents together, group boycott and conspiracy to monopolize. According to the Chinese companies, typically U.S. patent licensing fees for other products are between 3 and 5 percent of the item's wholesale price, compared to the 50 percent for DVD players."

6 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. At least they have the guts... by kusanagi374 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's obvious that the 3C Patent Group is guilty, but then... that's how things work in the western world, and such acts are protected by local governments.

    I only see this as the chinese companies trying to defend their position, nothing more. They want to be competitive, even more than they already are.

    1. Re:At least they have the guts... by oliverthered · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So, which fat cat in China is getting richer because of this.

      --
      thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  2. Re:Is it just me? by Jameth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's interesting to note that, as India is an even bigger proponent of these freedoms than China, that the real champions of intellectual property freedoms are those in rising third world nations. This is the exact same position the US was in when it began its rise and it is interesting to consider that the economic situation of the country could so outstrip the cultural components in this manner. If you compare the three places, there are extremely few similarities, yet they all chose the same path when in the same situation.

  3. Francis Cabot Lowell by mcc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Believe it or not, the world still existed before 1900. Ever hear of Francis Cabot Lowell? In the early 1800s Britain's industry had some of the best industrial technology in the world, and they viciously protected their trade secrets, trying to make sure that no one else could get hold of their stuff. Francis Cabot Lowell around 1810 wanted to start some modern textile mills in New England, so he went over to England, got a job in a textile mill, examined the machines until he understood them, reverse-engineered the schematics and then memorized them, and came back to New England knowing how to build them himself. This is how the powered loom came to North America, It was the first example of industrial espionage in history that I'm aware of.

    If you look at the period during which the U.S. began its rise as an international economic power-- not the post-Reconstruction period during which it had already completed that rise, which is where Edison existed-- you see LOTS of examples of stuff like this, over multiple areas of intellectual property. Witness Charles Dickens' desperate attempts to get America's book publishers to actually respect his copyrights...

    --
    Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
    1. Re:Francis Cabot Lowell by cheesybagel · · Score: 3, Interesting
      This is how the powered loom came to North America, It was the first example of industrial espionage in history that I'm aware of.

      Industrial espionage goes way before that.

      Quote:
      The methods of securing silk and weaving fabrics from it were held secret by the Chinese for nearly two thousand years. Alexander the Great was credited with discovering it in India during the Third Century B.C., though for centuries afterward Westerners could only import this mysterious new fabric. It was among the Chinese a capital offense to reveal the secrets of the trade or to export the eggs from which the worms were hatched, but that didn't stop two priests from smuggling some eggs in the hollows of their bamboo staffs and bringing them to Constantinople in 555 A.D. However, silk continued to be imported from Asia, as silk production in Europe was fraught with disaster and danger. Attempts to raise silkworms consistently failed, due to the difficulty of growing healthy mulberry trees. Even today, while many efforts have been made to produce silk in the United States and Europe, most raw silk still comes from China, Japan, Bengal, and other Asian countries, where labor is cheap, and the requisite Bombyx mori and mulberry leaves are plentiful.

  4. Re:It's a fixed amount, not a percentage by SuperDry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Regarding it being up to the Chinese to decide, it's not quite that simple. The Chinese have to abide by the patent laws in Western Europe, the US, and Japan if they want their products to be legally importable.