The US Spent Years Telling China To Take Patents Seriously; Now It's Freaking Out That China Is Doing So

The US Spent Years Telling China To Take Patents Seriously; Now It's Freaking Out That China Is Doing So

4 years ago
Anonymous $-riAjkQg_1

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200217/23430443937/us-spent-years-telling-china-to-take-patents-seriously-now-freaking-out-that-china-is-doing-so.shtml

By now, I'm sure, you've heard the story over and over again about how China "doesn't respect" things like patents, and how the US has had, time and time again, needed to use diplomatic pressure to try to get China to stop trying to copy American inventions, and to start "respecting" patents. Yet, for many years, we've been pointing out how brain dead this logic has been. All the way back in 2009, we warned that China was using this bizarre American obsession with patent monopolies against us. And that has continued over the years. Suddenly, China started flooding foreign patent offices with millions of Chinese patents. Indeed, the country started to "respect" patents so much, that it basically turned into a giant patent troll, shaking down foreign companies for money -- and more importantly, using those patents to block competition (remember, patents are a monopoly right).

In the last few years, this has ramped up, and, just as we warned, China began using that monopoly right as a tool to punish and block foreign competitors, clearing the market for Chinese firms -- all because the US and its patent maximalists demanded that China "respect" such monopoly rights.