What Every Startup Need to Know About IP in China

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gingerlime 11 years ago |

I'm curious about copyright infringement in china and what practical options there are. Hope it's not too OT.

We're building an anatomy learning platform[0], and produce original illustrations and videos that cost us a lot of time and money to create. When we see copies on US or EU website we can use DMCA or EU takendown notices, which usually work. In China our emails were pretty much ignored...

Now we're not some huge company, we're a small bootstrapped startup which isn't even ramen-profitable yet (mostly due to large expenses on content-creation). We cannot even afford a lawyer locally, let alone someone who can represent us in China. I'm wondering if anyone has some tips or experience in this area?

(all being said, the number of infringements we know about is pretty small, but it's worrying nonetheless)

[0] www.kenhub.com

rayiner 11 years ago |

China is many things, but one of those is practical. They're planning for a future in which they're not just a low-cost manufacuring hub (much of that is indeed already leaving China for places like Vietnam). To that end, they're making a very concerted effort to modernize their legal system, importing many ideas from the U.S. (e.g. they have American legal academics helping reform areas like the law of evidence) and introducing twists of their own (e.g. lightweight arbitration for small civil disputes).

jacquesm 11 years ago |

> Chinese trademark registration costs are typical internationally.

To the OP, this sentence does not parse or I fail to understand what you mean with it.

michaelmior 11 years ago | |

Perhaps it's suggesting that trademark registration costs in China are on par with those of other countries?

nmattisson 11 years ago | | |

Poorly worded perhaps, but michelmior's interpretation is correct.

clemfeelsgood 11 years ago |

Great article. Thanks for sharing your experience

dsplatonov 11 years ago |

Thanks for information about trademarks. What about utility, utility models and designs? Can it be protected in China?

nmattisson 11 years ago | |

Yes, they have a system with design and utility patents that is ~similar to the west. When you talk to local lawyers they always emphasise the importance of trademarks as the most effective way to protect your IP, but if you are have the budget getting patents could be good as well. The one thing to note is that you have to file a Chinese patent within a year of any other application worldwide. (I don't know nearly as much about this subject as I've learnt about trademarks, so caveat emptor.)

skyhatchash 11 years ago |

Interesting to see the tides changing. Whether the IP laws are enforced is another story.

jacques_chester 11 years ago | |

I'm preparing to lodge a patent application in China. Not because I think it might be realistically enforceable now, but because in its lifetime the degree to which the Chinese system will enforce it is going to rise.

It's a 20-year bet on the legal trajectory of what it is going to be the largest market in the world.

joellarsson 11 years ago |

Are hardware+software startups like fitbit & withings copied as well?

cnphil 11 years ago | |

Yes, at the price of $13. http://www.cnet.com/news/xiaomi-to-sell-its-13-fitness-band-...

jacquesm 11 years ago | | |

This is one of the reasons why I will probably never again do a hardware start-up.

est 11 years ago | | |

Lemme give you a counter example. Chinese copied Neato or irobot Roomba, their hardware was even superior and price is 30% as much, but ultimately failed as a product. Because the route planing algorithm is completely shit. You often found it stuck or running out of power.

Neato or iRobot does not sell in China, Chinese users actually pays extra to get one. And they are happily doing so.

The moral of the story? Chinese can not copy the soul of your product.

tlear 11 years ago | | |

Kindof surprising that they did not manage to obtain the routing algorithm of the Roomba.

jkestner 11 years ago | | |

Or at least add a barrier, like a cloud-provided service component.

borgchick 11 years ago | | |

Not sure how much that would help even.

Look at the Misfit Shine (http://store.misfit.com/), great product, beautiful device. Then a few weeks ago I get this in the email from DX: http://www.dx.com/p/otium-shine-1-1-ipx7-bluetooth-v4-0-smar...

It is obviously the same product, they are even using the same marketing photos.

Now here is the twist, they sort of did their own hacked version of the Shine App, and even released it to the AppStore.

AndrewKemendo 11 years ago |

Very helpful and something we have worried about as well.

pkoton 11 years ago |

Very helpful - thanks!

gdonelli 11 years ago |

nice