Samsung's Foldable Screen Tech Has Been Stolen, Sold To China (cnn.com)
Prosecutors in South Korea say that Samsung's latest bendable screen technology has been stolen and sold to two Chinese companies. "The prosecutors allege that a Samsung supplier leaked blueprints of Samsung's 'flexible OLED edge panel 3D lamination' to a company that it had set up," reports CNN. "That company then sold the tech secrets to the Chinese firms for nearly $14 million, according to the prosecutors." CNN reports: The Suwon District Prosecutor's Office charged 11 people on Thursday with stealing tech secrets from Samsung, the office said in a statement. They did not name the people or companies involved in the theft. Samsung Display, a subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate, said in a statement Friday that it was "surprised and appalled at the results of the investigation by prosecutors."
Prosecutors said Samsung invested six years and some 150 billion won ($130 million) to develop the bendable screen. Investigators have not been able to track down and question two Chinese individuals believed to be involved in the case, and have asked Interpol to help find and detain them. Of the 11 people indicted, three have been detained.
Prosecutors said Samsung invested six years and some 150 billion won ($130 million) to develop the bendable screen. Investigators have not been able to track down and question two Chinese individuals believed to be involved in the case, and have asked Interpol to help find and detain them. Of the 11 people indicted, three have been detained.
SO you are saying Foxcon will be installing folding screens in the iphone 11. Cool.
I guess that's bad in principle, but their never ending quest to make phones that cannot fit into protective cases doesn't leave me with any sympathy for them.
China is not a "developing country" anymore. It hasn't been for about 15-20 years, if not longer. It is to us what the US was to Europe in the 1930s, and by then the federal government would have prosecuted the shit out of such an act, but not a damn thing will be done to any Chinese that escaped the South Korean government unless one of the parties brings a big hammer out against China.
The thieves did not sell the stolen tech to a Chinese company, they gave it to the Chinese government. This is a good way to advance yourself in China. As such, there is zero possibility of getting the Chi-Comms to cooperate in an investigation. Samsung can write the entire thing off along with 1,000 other inventions the Chi-Comms lifted over the last few years.
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
On the one hand, we need to protect IP so that people keep producing it. On the other, I really, really want affordable rollable/foldable screens.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
So given that no product using that technology has hit the market, it will be difficult to argue that damage has been done.
This kind of nonsense is what you get, when you take too much of the "intellectual property" LSD, but reality catches up to you... hard.
Yeah, applying the term "ownership" to ideas, makes no sense. You can keep your ideas to yourself, and thereby a secret. Then you can control their distribution. But good luck showing us they exist at all*. ... With only one or two trusted people it's easy, like above. (And again, like above, of course, if the secret leaks to the whole world, it will be just as unrealistic, to expect, that you won’t find out.) ... Oh, and it is possible, to spread it at a location, that is outside of your light cone, and not tell you. Ergo, it is literally physically impossible, to guarantee staying in control. And saying you "own" something, without you (or usually: a state with police and an army that enforces guarantees) having control over it, is as meaningless as it is silly.
However, as soon as you tell your secret to people, it's only gonna be as much a secret, as those people are trustworthy. Expecting to just spread it out to thousands of people (employees), or even millions if one can buy it, without somebody leaking it, is ludicrously unrealistic. It only takes a single person. Behind your back. And it is also possible, and even likely at first, that nobody will tell you it ever happened.
Welcome to reality, Samsung!
You have to actually earn your money. With work.
Not pay some people once, for their hard work, and then expect to yourself be paid forever, while you twiddle your thumbs.
You too, only get paid once. Because guess what: We had to work hard for our money too. And we can't just put that money on the copier, and go buy stuff with it forever. There is no equivalent for that specific one of all the free money privileges that are called "intellectual property".
Boo hoo.
Next time, get a legitimate business model. We'll gladly work for the money we'll give you (and only you... not copies to everyone), if you worked just as long and just as hard for us (and only us... not copies to everyone).
- - -
(* Zero knowledge proofs actually never prove more than precisely that which they reveal/leak. Yes, you can use them, to reveal the entire thing to somebody in a huge amount of bits too small to see the entire thing. But then you have only revealed those bits. Not the combination of them. Hence you can still not show that you have the entire thing that is that specific combination. Or you can show somebody, that you have a tool/method, by taking some arbitrary input, and showing output that must have been done with that tool. But that does not show that you have an universal tool for *any* arbitrary input. You may still only have a tool that *only* works for the some specific input cases. Yes, repeated enough, you gain statistical reliability. But you inevitably also leak a just as reliable tool in the process. Besides: There is a difference between highly reliable observation, and a mathematical actual *proof*.)
You put a device in one end and out pops a cheaper copy on the other side! No espionage involved.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Oh, only now I get it: By "foldable", the article does not mean really foldable displays, but "some display that is slightly rounded at two of its outer edges.
trump needs up the tariffs on this tech from china
I think not. As a thought experiment, I'll design a 3D display that takes 2 old school CRT displays, 30" each, at if memory serves 5 lb per inch for that tech. I'll mount them each to a sheet of plywood, and join the plywood with hinges.
I can easily make a blueprint of that.
Will it work? Yeah, pretty sure I can make that work.
Will it scale to a 2 lb set of glasses that sit on your nose? Ummm
So given that no product using that technology has hit the market, it will be difficult to argue that damage has been done.
Surely you're aware that truly new technology has to be designed and tested, then redesigned and tested before it reaches the public. We're not talking about a new smartphone with an extra camera on it here, we're talking about an entirely new display technology that wasn't yet released.
If you don't want your stuff stolen, then quit going through Chinese companies or those who do..... Just that simple.
They are cheaper labor and manufactoring for that specific reason and these companies fall for it every time just about. It would be like if I kept allowing a kleptomaniac to watch my house for me while I am gone and then get mad when every time I do my stuff comes up stolen before I get back.
It is like watching that scene from "That 70's Show" where Heide keeps messing with Kelso who keeps falling for the exact same prank over and over again and Kelso says "Stop doing that!" and Heide responds "Get smarter!".
Seriously, these companies need to get smarter and either stop thinking short term and letting their shit get stolen and stop doing this crap, or just accept that their shit will get stolen and they have no one to blame but themselves and continue as they are.
Samsung stole processor secrets from TSMC and the Koreans just keep mum.
https://www.technobuffalo.com/...
How come the Koreans never prosecute Samsung for that theft??
Samsung spend billions developing it and not some china firm gets it for 14 million and gets to compete with Samsung. If this is allowed to happen, companies will no longer want to spend on R and D
Growing pain for Samsung. China is doing exactly what every other developing nation did prior to gaining supremecy.
better theirs than 'murikuh's. Make Communism Great Again.
so kill them. any anyone who tries to export. across the org. problem solved.
Marketing people need folding screens to sell cellphones, apparently. I am a "power user" who just want's a good flat screen--without rounding corners that have a blue line, and that sticks up, so we cannot put a proper screen protector on them.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Or they will, but instead of offloading the cost of keeping their secrets safe on governments, they’ll learn proper security. This would have the added benefit of protecting end uses of their products.
how much is the pay?
No law of economics says that the most wealthy corporations in the history of the world (like Apple and Samsung) would be bankrupt or that their products would be unaffordable if nobody traded with the evil totalitarian regime of China. If all non-China countries made the penalties extremely severe for transferring tech to China, all this big companies would rapidly figure out that robots in the rest of the world were as capable and affordable as robots in China and that human slave labor in China is not worth it.
Production in China (and the inevitable high-tech links with China and associated intentional tech transfers to China and opportunities for illicit tech transfer to China have only served to stuff the wallets of corporate execs fatter - they have not actually reduced prices in proportion. This stuff has, however, probably enabled the Chinese to prep for a future hyper-violet war in which they will almost certainly seek to spread their evil across the globe as all evil dictator-for-life regimes eventually attempt if they think they are big enough to do it.
Stop crying wolf, Samsung.
You stole IP from TSMC -- https://www.technobuffalo.com/...
Samsung is a goddamn thief !!!
Bullshit Lying Troll !
Chinese company can only sell it in china Samsung could stop them from selling outside of china
You wanted feckin-A chicom globalism, instead of A-bombing the bastards into the STONE AGE like McArthur wanted .... well look around Bosco! You got chicom globalism. Choke on it Trotsky-slut bitches.
Um, shouldn't Samsung have patented this? Which would make all the plans public by default?
Give a man a fish, and you will feed him for a day
Teach him how to catch a fish and you will feed him for the rest of his life
Those companies will not be able to innovate...
That's like a thief saying "How dare I spend thousands on thieving equipment to steal millions from people, and now will be at a substantial loss due to some other thief stealing my equipment!"
Boo-fuckin-hoo!
Yeah, how dare Samsung spend billions to *steal trillions* from people without working for it!
If you base your "business" on a a "business model" based on willful ignorance and delusion, with the direct intention of later stealing money from people without working for it, ... and reality, in the form of another asshole who doesn't give a shit about your "IP" religion, comes back to bite you, so you can't steal any money, not even to recoup the investments, you don't get to blame others.
Maybe you learn, to use a legitimate business model, based on reality, next time.
Or maybe you go WAAAHH like a SJW bully acting like a victim, and want to force the world to adhere to your reality distortion. Like a true (extroverted) religion.
In the end, it is only a question of time, before you will be forced to accept, that your oppression cannot work. Due to being in direct conflict with physical reality.
Fuckin thief!
To hell with tariff - make it a full blown embargo.
The technology wasn't stolen. The supplier leaked the blueprints. It's not as if someone hacked into their systems and took it or it was a phishing scheme. No, Samsung set up a company and a bunch of people from there sold it to some Chinese companies. Maybe Samsung should implement better hiring practices or pay better.
The R&D costs were $130M and not in the billions (that was billions of won).
Or they will, but instead of offloading the cost of keeping their secrets safe on governments, they’ll learn proper security. This would have the added benefit of protecting end uses of their products.
There is no proper security here. China is offering people at one company 7 times their current salary guaranteed for 3 years if they leave and come work for them with just the IP they have in their heads. You literally can not defend against that as a private company. China has promised to spend hundreds of billions before 2025 to steal the IP of western nations and stand up fabs in country to produce and sell them without the RnD costs.
The only way to deal with this is massive tariffs and trade embargoes. China is the worlds largest copying machine and deserves no respect economically on the world stage.
This is a good thing. Companies keep things secret then overtime the secrets are lost to history. It's nice when intellectual property gets stolen and copied so it's our might actually be around later when the original company no longer exists. I mean unless we're planning on the human race not existing in 50 Generations
Western companies particularly cannot compete once their IP is being produced in sweatshop conditions - which is ironic because a lot of them set up different sweatshops in the same country in the first place.
I'm more interested in what's coming from smaller starting and growing firms like www.wisecorp.co.uk and www.varjo.com presently.