At the Marcus Evans Innovate 2014 Conference in Shanghai today, I met Rosalie Wu, the head of marketing in China for the rapidly growing startup, Uber. Rosalie was Uber’s first hire in China and exemplifies the energetic, entrepreneurial spirit that is driving Uber to global success. She spoke about the development of Uber’s innovative business …
Breaking news from the Province of Shandong in northern China: A Chinese paper company, Quanlin Paper (also called “Tralin Paper”) has successfully used its portfolio of patents and trademarks to secure a huge loan of 7.9 billion RMB (about $1.3 billion). Potentially significant story for those tracking IP and innovation in China. The story was …
Chinese Company Relies on IP to Gain Giant Loan: Lessons from Quanlin (Tralin) Paper Read More »
Among the many burdens entrepreneurs face is the outright theft of their IP by companies that specialize in ripping off others by making counterfeits or knock-offs. It’s a horrific problem in China, in spite of increasing enforcement efforts by authorities. Part of the problem is that the cost of being caught is relatively small, so …
The Burden of Counterfeiting, and Apple’s Clever Response to Fake Chargers Read More »
One of my favorite conferences dealing with the details of successful open innovation and technology transfer strategy is CoDev, the annual conference sponsored by the Management Roundtable and now chaired by Cheryl Perkins of Innovationedge. I think I’ve been there four times and it was always worthwhile and extremely helpful. I’m pleasantly surprised that CoDev …
CoDev, the Open Innovation Forum, Is Coming to Shanghai Read More »
One of the great innovation fatigue factors in many nations is the lack of an effective patent system to protect intellectual property rights. When IP rights are weak or nonexistent, there is little incentive for innovation and economies can lag far behind their potential. China has recognized the need to do more than just low-cost …
So often I hear Westerners complain about innovation in China or about innovation from Chinese employees. There is a perception that Chinese people are great at following directions and working hard but poor at creativity and innovation. Yes, there is a cultural emphasis on respecting authority, following instructions, and sticking to one’s duties. There is …
The impact of innovation in China is often not obvious to the West, even when many gadgets like the iPhone draw upon innovations from China and Taiwan that make many Western products possible. Not many Chinese brands have spread outside the borders of China, leading some observers to question the significance of Chinese innovation in …
Maybe China is just too far from the smug innovation circles of the West. Maybe language and cultural barriers make the events unfolding in China too inaccessible to Western media. Maybe decades of concern about IP theft from Chinese companies has closed the eyes of the West to present realities. Whatever the reason, the West …
Invisible Innovation: The Blindness of the West to China’s Innovation Story Read More »
The good folks at the China Law Blog recently discussed a common scam that occurs in China. Actually, this is a scam that is shaking down small and large companies and lone inventors all over the globe. I’ve warned against it in the US for a long time and was intrigued to see it is …
The Bogus IP Registration Scam: Becoming a Global Phenomenon, Beware! Read More »
Yinglan Tan’s new book, Chinnovation: How Chinese Innovators Are Changing the World, offers many lessons for the West. Tan explores several dozen case studies of entrepreneurs from small and large companies with roots in China. Some of the lessons counter popular Western perceptions about business in China and others point to broadly applicable lessons in …