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Knockoff Tech Selling Better Than the Original
An anonymous reader writes to mention an IT Wire story about the industrious Chinese industry centered around reproducing commercial products. These individuals have become so adept at forging based on the original that by the time the developer of the technology comes to market, the 'original' is seen as 'fake' by consumers. Other products, such as shoes, CDs, DVDs, and even expensive cars are available for much lower prices in certain Chinese markets. From the article: "Sell these products do, especially in Asia where the prices are low, few questions are asked and in many cases, the quality is actually pretty good. Samsung is said to have been so concerned by seeing its phones copied on the Chinese market that it tracked the distribution channels back to the source and discovered the electronics guys responsible for copying their latest products. After offering them a job with Samsung and a chance to go legitimate, they are reported to have declined the offer, saying that they were able to make more money by simply continuing in their pirate ways. What Samsung did next is not known."
RULES.
China is growing products & services as their engineering graduates do more and more original work, instead of copying.
At some point China will need to enforce copyrights, trademarks and patents so that their local inventive products can be sold on the world market...without copycats in the U.S., EU and elsewhere.
Relevant facts to date:
Right now Assignee companies of U.S. issued patents in China total 2400 or so, which isn't very many, but it is growing.
Almost 7000 U.S. patents have been issued to people residing in China. One can assume far more patents are submitted in China but never have foreign applications.
China graduates more engineers, mathemeticians and scientists every year than the U.S.
Will it go smoothly, soon, or be diligent in giving foreign patent holders the same rights as Chinese patent holders? I doubt it.
Beijing refuses to help. The pirate engineers are rolling in money and hookers.
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Even Donald Trump agrees that the Chinese gov't is playing dirty:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/10/9/2307
Why we continue to give away jobs to a big communist cheater and run up a big bubble-risky trade deficit with them, I'll never know.
Table-ized A.I.
Two years military service doesn't teach you to be an assassin who can kill and leave no trace. It teaches you to run around like a bitch and do pressups like a bitch, but not much else.
There are very few organisations in the world which can kill someone and leave no trace, and Samsung ain't one of them.
Beer is a bad example. Brewing is a trade, and trademarks do not protect beer styles. It's a recipe. There are restrictions on what you can call your beer.
Many of the American brewers who "knocked off" European styles were actually immigrants themselves. Adolphus Busch (who we have to blame for Budweiser) himself was a German immigrant, coming to America when he was around 18 and then marrying Lilly Anhueser. Many of their products were somewhat different than their German equivalents, and based on recipes recovered (such as the Classic American Pilsner were quite good. American brewing didn't become terrible until after Prohibition.
On another note, Bud is--believe it or not--very difficult to brew. It's damn hard to remove all the flavor from the beer like that without showcasing other flaws. This is purely anecdotal, but I can think of at least one ex-Anhueser-Busch brewer who has done quite well after going out on his own. The brewmaster at one of my favorite local breweries used to be a production supervisor at Anhueser-Busch, and he makes excellent, flavorful and award-winning beers.
Finally, 300+ years? Budvar has been brewing for much longer than that, but their beers were nothing like they are now . The first pilsners (like Budweiser Budvar) weren't brewed until the 1840s. As an aside, brewers all over the world (including Germany, of course) quickly imitated the first pilsners produced.
But you're right, Budwar Budweiser is a hell of a lot better than Anhueser-Busch Budweiser.