[quote=“Hobart”]Joesax: if you want to delete the solely political posts, I will edit out the spat with Poagao from my own car posts.[/quote]Cheers, but I have super moderating powers so can do a neater job and don’t have to delete anything.
I don’t usually have time to perform this level of “reconstructive surgery” on threads. Because of technical limitations, a few posts (one each from Juba, Hobart, and Poagao) now appear to have been removed but all the material therein has been reproduced, in its correct time sequence, quoted in other posts.
Hey, everyone should get off their high horse on this one. What do you think all Western companies do? Products get ripped off all the time, even if they are patented. There are just too many ways to get around patents on most products. Don’t just blame the Chinese, although they do it the most flagrantly.
I have to laugh at the post of the mp3 link. That’s a typical example of factory desiginng their own brand of mp3 player which would probably not violate patent laws if and when they were ever sued. If you want to blame anyone blame Adam Smith and Ricardo, or any other capitalist you’d care to mention.
The only difference is that when western companies reverse engineer or steal, they change the design enough to differentiate their products, therefore claiming their original or better. Asians just save their energy.
MFASSO: The Chinese steal designs because they absolutely suck at design. Look at original Chinese and Taiwanese designs. They most alway look awful. So they steal the ideas instead of paying for a top creative designer. They are too cheap to hire a good designer and would rather steal. I believe there are a few great Chinese designers but they are most likely working for western companies or too expensive for the cheapskate Chinese.
No need to stick up for China they are not the little guy nor are they the underdog and they are definitely not the good guy.
I’m not claiming that Chinese companies don’t steal or rip off ideas. There are those that do. I can also tell you that there are lots of factories that don’t. The fact is, any factory hopoing to export to global markets can’t really afford to infringe on patents, as their customers would be liable for the patent infringement. Selling to the domestic Chinese market, on the other hand, can be done with almost complete impunity, as the pictures earlier on in this thread would indicate. As China undertakes reforms mandated by its ascension to the WTO, you will find this practice will change.
In terms of ripping off, if mp3 players or other products are what you’re referring to, it is very easy for anyone anywhere to make their own version of a product, even if it looks similar and has the same function. As long as they haven’t copied a patented design exactly they don’t even need to get off the hook, because this is completely legal. In fact most companies in the world don’t even bother to patent their designs, since only designs can be patented, and not process. Obviously, products which are invested in heavily by large companies, and have complex technology will be patented.
Of course this brings up the question of why large mnc’s like Nokia, IBM, CISCO, Dell, Ericsson and others i can’t think of right now have set up R and D operations in Taiwan. This revolves largely around the fact that IPR protection has grown by leaps and bounds.
Anyways, the entire point of what i was trying to say earlier, is not that chinese do or do not engage in this activity, it’s that it is also encouraged by western companies looking for lower costs and better products. They are the first people to buy samples of products in the west, ship them over here, and ask a factory to make something similar.
[quote=“Hobart”]Here is one Chinese car design that shows us why they end up stealing designs from other companies. Their designs suck!
Yikes! that thing is uglier than a smashed asshole. And where do the rear two doors lead? to the boot? this thing can’t really be a four seater can it?
Oh my! That one is a dead ringer. But of course the tricky Chinese would say, “no no no, BMW has a propeller, we have a mountain. What the headlights, come on, they copied ours…Isn’t that right Comrade Wang…Yes, yes, its true, we have had this design for over 20 years, we just never released it. BMW surely copied us, we might even sue them.”
Unless you’re sitting in one during an accident. Have a look at the videos of Jiangling’s Landwind crashing at 64km/h during a test by the German automobile club ADAC (Real player required). The car is already on sale in Europe and is currently being shown on the IAA in Frankfurt. Video 1 (inside) Video 2 (outside)
The ADAC rated the results as the worst ever in the 20 years they have been conducting crash tests. The driver would have had no chance of surviving. Read more here (in German).
Yikes! that thing is uglier than a smashed asshole. And where do the rear two doors lead? to the boot? this thing can’t really be a four seater can it?[/quote]
that looks exactly like one of those $50 nt remote control cars. prolly where they stole the design from. bet it spins like one too
