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Tesla Wins One Over Chinese Trademark Troll
cartechboy writes "The Tesla Model S went on sale in China this week, at a price of $121,000--which is the same $79,900 price as in the U.S. plus a whole bunch of other costs tacked on, mostly the customs duty China uses to protect its own auto industry and a stiff value-added tax. But that's not the big news. Lost in the announcement was the news that Tesla got its brand name back from a Chinese trademark troll who'd registered it in 2006, even before the very first electric Roadster was sold in the States. So now the company's stores can carry the name "Te Si La," which is the Chinese transliteration most familiar to consumers in that country. Score one more for Tesla Motors."
As mentioned in the article, most buyers in China will get this more for show than for the environment. At least in the U.S. when trolls call electric cars pointless, I can point to the 100% wind power on my electric bill and be smug about it, or at least point out that big industrial power plants in the countryside can scrub and dilute their exhaust more efficiently than thousands of cars crammed in a little city, but in China I think the power plants right now are probably just as bad.
I do find it strange that the article mentions China incentivizing electric vehicles to reduce smog, while also pointing out the huge import duties Tesla has to pay. Given how cheap almost everything made in China is here, I didn't realize that they could tax our exports of anything that highly.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Trademarks exist to ensure that consumers know the source of the goods they buy. If you aren't selling the public something using the name, then you can't tie up the name merely by registering a trademark and sitting around (as this guy seems to have done.) There was no need for Tesla to bargain, because there was no segment of the vehicle buying public that would be confused by Tesla selling the vehicles under their own name.
Eh, are you serious? You can't just trademark the names of products that are not yours in countries where they have not yet applied just to blackmail the company. If you have a legitimate product and you are the first to register that name for it, it is all good and they will have to pay you to get it back. But this guy just registered the name and made a fake "Tesla Motors China" website, complete with the Tesla logo and a car he had no relation to, then asked for millions.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Tesla was not competent enough to register the trademark in all markets it was going to do business, and someone else did. Rather than working out some medication where Tesla paid for the lack of foresight, it was simply taken away. I don't think that the ruling was wrong, obviously China does not value the free market the way the US does, but there should have a happy middle between millions of dollars and something reasonable to pay.
The only reasonable value to pay to a troll is zero. Actually, no. The correct amount is that the troll pays the victim for their trouble and legal fees. A reasonable compromise is zero. The company in question was 100% troll. They were not doing business under that name. They had no intention of doing business under the Tesla name. This is true regardless of whether Tesla was "competent" enough to defensively register its name in all markets before it had product to sell just in case a troll an idea how to make some easy, unearned money.
the customs duty China uses to protect its own auto industry
But remember, we have free trade!
No really, all you have to do is define it such that "free trade" means the US has to bend over, while China, etc. get to do whatever they want to protect their industries.
hen kuai
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Sure you can. You don't know Chinese law. Just another ignorant foreigner who thinks he can breeze into China and things will be just like they are back home. Nine times out of ten when you hear the "China screwed me" story it means "I couldn't be bothered to learn anything about local laws and just assumed I could do whatever I wanted." China has laws, but you have to use them, and most people don't bother to learn. Check chinalawblog.com for endless stories on this topic.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I can't imagine living in a world where 70 thousand dollars must seem like something obtainable only by the top 1%
??!?!
Unless you live on Mars, you *do* live in that world.
To BILLIONS of people "in this world" a $70K+ car is something obtainable only by the top 1%. To the deeply impoverished of Africa, India and Asia - And some parts of South America - Spending more money than they will see in their entire lives on a car seems unimaginable, especially when you consider spending $40K on a car and then spreading your 'leftover' $30K in an African village on goats, vaccinations, mosquito nets, school supplies and a well will improve their lives dramatically.
You will literally be saving the lives of children.
Sure you'll be driving a Leaf instead of a Tesla, but so what?
Yeah, yeah, I'm a commie. Whatever. Stop buying stupidly expensive cars and help your fellow man.
Lets try this and see how it works...
But in [Insert country here] at least, knowing the right people in the [ruling party of that country] can get you far.
Now can someone list a country where this is not the case?
Every second day there are stories about the XXAA passing favourable laws, and now we want to pretend this is a "china thing" as its convenient?
Elon Musk didn't bribe anyone, there's perfectly good legal avenues available. When you bribe an official, you can't stop once you've started. It's a poor business decision. If you depend on him to do business, eventually he will retire or go to jail and you're screwed.
"One of the things I have always found troubling about Westerners doing business in emerging market countries is that they sometimes take an almost perverse pride in discussing payoffs to government officials. It is as though their having paid a bribe is a symbol of their international sophistication and insider knowledge. Yet, countless times when I am told of the bribe, I know the very same thing could almost certainly have been accomplished without a bribe."
--Dan Harris, chinalawblog.com
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!