Beijing Calling
Nokia has announced its intention to take legal action against two Chinese cell phone manufacturers for what it says are blatant copies of its designs. With the Chinese market rapidly expanding, Western manufacturers are eager to get their products into the hands of Chinese consumers, and Nokia sees Telsda's and Song Xun Da Zhong Ke Electronic's near cloning of its products as an obstacle to its financial success in the Chinese market -- for while Nokia's profits are up, it's shares have gone down as investors worry about flat market growth throughout Europe and the United States. Cracking the Chinese consumer market for cell phones would solve that problem.
Chinese manufacturers have a history of disregarding intellectual property rights, ripping off Western designs for many of their products and passing them off as their own, not to the mention rampant DVD and CD piracy across Asia. Nokia's legal action against Telsda and SXDZK Electronic has the potential for widespread ramifications should the Chinese legal system side with Nokia over the two homegrown varieties -- will it result in protection of intellectual property rights, or a protection of Chinese companies over foreign firms? Should be a very interesting case to watch (via Mobile Gazette).
ADDENDUM:
A Defense of China's DVD Pirates: China only allows 20 foreign films to be imported each year, and usually 14 - 16 of these are from MPAA members. So what the MPA is talking about in this report isn’t “profits lost to pirates in China” but “profits lost to closed markets in China”.