You should now ditch your market research reports, unless………

You have always wondered where you should put all your eggs and you will always not knowing the answer. In the real world as compared to the virtual world of witchcraft, you can never be sure. You may engage someone to do a market research and survey but as good as they come, you know that it is obsolete the moment you get to read it! Information travels fast and market conditions change even faster; so you will never be able to keep up with reality. If you are just starting on a business, and you only have a limited budget, you will need the right information so that you can focus on your target market that gives you maximum ROI. As ammunition is expensive, you really have to get at your target the first time around, otherwise you will burn out in no time. But can’t we rely on our market report? It is more like a chicken and egg case really. Think of it, just ask yourself the question, or your market researcher might ask you just where do you intend to bring your business to and you will have to scratch your head for an answer. If you do not know where your best markets are, assuming that you are just starting out, how would you know where the market survey should be conducted? Would your market researcher be able to give advice? No they can’t!

Right, since you do not know where to target your market, how then would you conduct your market research? Maybe you can try guesses but that would be very risky and you could lose it all in no time. A better way and perhaps one of the best ways is to conduct a real time market research. Not those that engages the social network, but one that is able to touch the real buyers. Just how do you go about it then? Well, there is this company that says that they can get at the real buyers. Real buyers! Yes, real buyers and not some cook up stooge! But it can only be done if certain steps are taken. One of the ways is to create a prototype and put it out on the net. Then it has to be positioned where people can assess it via a search engine. There is of course plenty of work on this method, but it can be done. Once the prototype is in a good position, it will then draw in inquiries and ultimately buyers. From then on, it will be analysis all the way and from it you will be able to tweak your offerings to suit the market. Maybe a closer look at Market Research might ring a bell. So, if you are using the conventional market research method of finding where to target your market, you should ditch it for something more modern!

The dragon is awakened

China has a new offensive called a “charm doctrine” and it is using it even to more friendly countries like Brazil and Africa. We all know that China is good at manufacturing. But it does not have sufficient raw materials. It need to source raw items from all over the world. If it cannot source, then it buys up assets in foreign countries, resulting in fear that one day, it would control the whole world because it has become the world landlord. That might be a bit far fetch but never the less, it has begun a charm offensive to woo the less developed economies. But behind its strategy is to get at all the resources it can buy just so that its manufacturing will not suffer from having to buy at ridiculously high prices. She is using her vast reserves to splurge on asset accumulation and that has got western economies worried. Still, there is very little western countries can do because they themselves are facing a monetary crisis of huge proportion. China has agreed to buy up the debts of Greece, Spain and Iceland and is ready to do more. It is no doubts money power and it is a great weapon in times of credit crunches. In order not to fray feathers, China has push out the charm offensive to allay fears that it is out to enslave the world.

Aside from the charm offensive, China is also encouraging its people to go out and play their role by forming joint ventures with foreign parties. This is a good way to play down the need for raw resources. Manufacturing can now move out to the less developed countries. Chinese brands will no longer be solely made in China but will spread all over the globe. It works both ways. For countries that lack funds, China is eager to play the role of the financier. Joint venture with local firms will in a way make it look as if the locals are doing the manufacturing. That was the game played by the western powers after the Second World War. Today, however, the western economies are facing great problems and in its stead, China is putting herself as the great savior. Slowly and surely, we will see the advent of Chinese brands coming of age and infiltrating into the rest of the world’s market. Japan used to play that role but unfortunately it has lost a lot of ground and she will not see those glory moments again. Some wise men said if you arouse the dragon, you will ultimately regret it. There seems to be no retreat on this and we would be well advised to quickly tie up with a Chinese entity to go into joint ventures. Have you got a thought about doing a joint venture with a Chinese firm? Now, you can source for idea at China Asean Trade because Chinese Manufacturing is represented here in Asia in a permanent exhibition trade center right at this great economic developmental corridor called Iskandar Malaysia.

Bees are vanishing from this earth fast.

Scientists are reporting that the bee population is shrinking away fast. It seems that bee population is shrinking throughout the world, especially in the more developed countries. There has been a significant decline of bee population in Europe, North America, China and Japan. However, there has been no studies made in other countries, but scientists believed that the situation there is no better. But why are we concerned? Did we love bees that much? Well, bees are very important to mankind. They fly from one flower to another sucking at the nectar and in so doing, help to pollinate flowers. They don’t actually do the work of pollination but because pollens get stuck to their legs and when they move in and out of flowers, they help transfer the pollens from one flower to another flower. In this way, pollination helps in the creation of fruits. But of course bees are not the only means plant get pollinated. Wind, ants and other insects also helps out. However, bees play a major role of plant pollination.

Scientists are stumped for an answer. There could be many factors, but one of them could be due to the chemical pollutions caused by the widespread use of pesticides. Another one could be the increasing amount of acid rain. Bees don’t generally travel far from their habitats and when they have to fly further because agricultural patches are getting bigger, they somehow find it a burden and an energy sapping routine. A century ago, scents from flowers, for example, could travel roughly a third of a mile. In today's more polluted air, the scents only travel one third of that distance, making it more difficult for bees to zero in on flowers. Perhaps the bees get confused and lose their directions?

Then there are bee diseases. Bees are susceptible to tiny parasites like the varroa mite, which drains blood from and weakens bee hosts. As bees don’t belong to anybody, when they are affected by parasites, they just succumb and die off. Farmers, who are the main beneficiary of the pollinating bees, just do not know how to go about helping out the bees. Probably farmers should have bee culturing programs as part of their activity but before it could be done; there must be some sort of legislation put in place. Just as an indication of the importance of bees, almost eighty percent of the world’s food crop depends on bees for pollination. One alternative to bees is to use ants instead. It not only helps in pollination but it is also a defense against vermin and pests. A more sophisticated way is to use tiny flying robots to help out.

Excavators 2011-upgraded to make it safe and comfortable

It is the sign of the time and excavators not excepted. The new range of excavators has design features that put many car manufacturers to shame. Just for starters, the new range of excavators has air conditioned cabins and roll over protective cages. Can you find a car that is designed with roll over protection? Yes, safety has caught up with excavator designs. In some countries, it is even mandatory because safety come first before profit. You don’t send out a machine that is dangerous to use. Accidents do happen, even with these huge machines. On uneven grounds, and they do work in them quite often, the machine can easily tip over. Unlike a car, excavators do have accessories like long swing arms that when put to use do often change the machine’s center of gravity. They do often tip over when some of the arms dig into the ground. Sometimes, they do encounter hard materials underground and they could easily roll over especially with inexperience drivers. So for safety sake, a roll over safety cage designed to ISO 12117-2: 2008 standards. It is coming so maybe all those old machines without the standard cage might have to retrofit or be demobilized to the scrape yards!

There are also other features that might make its way to the excavators of the future. One of the more appropriate items is the retractable seat belt. If the machine rolls over, the driver must be secured in its seat, otherwise there is no point to have a roll over cage. Like cars, it would soon be mandatory to even have airbags. Again, if it does roll over, at least the driver could escape being injured by the deployment of the airbags. You would probably need a few of them since some machines do have a high mounted cabin and the bags would be useful when there is a toppling of the cabin. Another of the new feature is the dashboard. If the cabin is air conditioned, then you can afford a more decent type of monitoring meters like those you have in commercial aircraft! With a pressurized cabin, you don’t hear much of the noise outside. But to be able to hear a feedback noise when you extend an arm digging into the earth is something vital for the driver, so sound detectors and cctv should be incorporated into the machines. And with all these features incorporated, it would be obvious that the price will shoot upwards. Again, safety first, profit probably only comes second! Booking for your new excavator? Why not try amphibious excavator manufacturer ?

When you are faced with a problem, you either succumb or you …......

become victorious. For most ordinary people, when they are faced with a big problem, like getting into insolvency, they most likely succumb to being declared bankrupt. That it seems is the easy way out. Be honorable and face bankruptcy. You don't have to die, do you? Unfortunately, we can't encourage people to take that view because that would be a defeatist path and no honorable people can accept it. Instead, if you are faced with adversity, you should take it as a challenge. You should treat it as unjustified and fight on, no matter what, until you can break away from the morass. Of course it takes strength and strong spirits. One element that helps is a strong mind. Building a strong mind needs time and the right environment. Upbringing can make the difference. Richness can make you weak in mind and poverty can spurt you to great heights. When there is a need, there is a way. However, if fighting spirit is lacking, then failure ensures.

Have you met anyone who succeeds and had never tasted failures? It would be rare and unbelievable if people says they succeeded the fist time. It would most probably be a sugar coated case. It is important to taste failures as they can be a great teacher. Every time you fail, you learn of a way where things don't work. When you have that many experiences of failures, you will learn of the many ways that don't work out and you will try new ways. But some people just find it an excuse to give up easily. They usually don't have any pride at all and they have that flaw character of enjoying in defeat. Indeed, some are proud of failing. It is a form of mental disease; that thing that tells you not to fight on.

Successful people usually have an inner voice that tells them to get up and run, after they have fallen. Be it self motivation or a survival instinct, the inner voice can do wonders. Failures also have an inner voice, but they tell them to just give up! No matter whether you are a born failure or a born again success, you must learn how to do self motivation. Who else can tell you to get up and run again, except that mind of yours that resides in your head. It is there guiding you twenty four hours and for free as well. Use it often or you loose it. Speak to your mind constantly. Ask it to pressure you into getting results. Motivate yourself and you will also motivate others. When you get results, you would want others to also get results. And when they gets results, it will further motivate you to excel. If however your spirit is lacking, you can either remain where you are, or seek the advice of a Success Mentor .

China, spilled with beans all over the place is now trying to collect back the beans

It must be a hot hot place for realty aficionados in the China market when Beijing approved of the billions of dollars to help save China from a soft landing in the aftermath of the financial crises in the US. Overnight, china man, who have been waiting for such a landfall since the inauguration of Hu Jin Tau as the president, have now got the chance to partake in the sudden get rich syndrome like never before. With s much money being spilled unto the bankers, every Hu, Chen and Wang on the streets are figuring what property to buy. It is not so much of buying a house to live in, rather, it is a stampede to grab a piece of the action, with more people buying their second, and third property. They say it is once in a life time thing and if you missed it, then curse yourself to the grave!

So everyone is chasing their third home, at the expanse of the poor, the new graduate who has yet to land a job and the deprived and silenced villager. It was a fantastic exercise, at least from the view of the countries new rich. Besides playing the stock market, indulging in the property sector shows that you have arrived. Looking at the madness, Chairman Moa would have turned in his grave at the revolution that his red guards was assumed to have initiated. But of more concerned is how long can such a debacle last? You have thrown in money unto the streets and the lucky ones are picking them up and even asking for more, how could you put a stop to it. Really, China is a big place compared to other states, and it would even looked bigger if you were to see the amount of unlawfulness and bureaucracy inherent in its structures. Do you ask the bank not to lend anymore? Look, the bank managers have a cut in lending out money for speculations!

It would be a real show to see what China is going to do to rein in the speculators. Already, inflation, especially in essential food items and dwellings, have gone beyond the level that the Chinese have come to accept. Poor factory workers, left behind in the chase for richness in a communist state, have resorted to committing suicide because they can't survive otherwise! Factories, mostly of the sweat shop category, is racing towards a new collective agreement just so as to placate the deprived worker with a meager increase in wages. Now, the Chinese government is really worried about the situation getting out of control. A new proletariat revolution is not unthinkable as temperatures are boiling over from the urban west to the poor east. The least that they want to see is the greedy gobbling up all the funds at the expense of the poor. I looks like the US financial crisis has not only deprived work in America, it has also triggered trouble in the rest of the world, with China the main casualty.

Who is Stealing Your China Trade Secrets?

 

Intellectual property theft always an inside job

What is the big hu-ha about companies getting their intellectual property stolen in China? How could that be? Companies that have operations in China do not keep their files in China. They mostly likely, and these refers to the majority of western firms, do not have anything of value kept in a Chinese office. Nay, all these complaints are propaganda! Just ask yourself, if you have your research and development set up based in the US or Europe, would you put them (the data) in Beijing? Or you have it locked up in San Francisco? Most western firms having operations in China is only using that place because of the cheap labor. For manufacturing firms, China serve as a backyard factory as the labor cost is ten times cheaper than the US. And you only need to keep your finished model in China for reference. The rest of the development data you keep away from China. So, what sorts of intellectual property has got stolen in China?

How about those that provide services like Google and Yahoo? Are their intellectual property  really being stolen in China? Or was it because the Chinese authorities are getting edgy about its own citizens pilfering information to an outside party? There is no way secrets can get stolen in China, purportedly by Chinese spies. There is however a possibility that some trade secrets are being stolen, not by Chinese, but by their own people. Certainly, many of these western firms are manned by their own kind. and some of these are senior stuffs who might be thinking of getting a fast buck. They sold off secrets, or purportedly secrets, but are of not much use. In reality, some of the bigger Chinese companies do have their own R & D departments. manned by a mix of indigenous Chinese and westerner.  There are also some Chinese who were recruited due to their expertise whilst they were working in the west. Obviously, both are highly paid. And the leak, if there are any, will most likely come from inside the firm. After all, who will know of what data is available and who will know how valuable it is?

China Rules Skype Illegal. Tell Me Something New.

The two real problems in China

China is a large country with a large population. If you are given the opportunity to govern China, you will probably grasping for breath thinking of a solution. Mind you, China is made up of many seperate states with as many cultures and beliefs. Although it has a single written language, people in different states talk with diferent slangs and it is not uncommon for a northern  chinese to not understand what a southern chinese is talking about. To govern it, you would need great resources and to be ready to use untried methods. Now, China has progressed to the second largest economy in the world, and is moving towards dethroning US as the largest economy, probably within four years time. But beneath all those money making schemes that a revived China has, two things stand out in importance. One is how to control the communicating links among the citizenry and the other is the great concern about run away inflation. It is therefore not surprising that the present Chinese government spent most of their time debating as to what appropriate actions to be taken to keep the kettle from boiling over.

Communication is a serious matter. In China, with a population of one over billion  and with most of them able to call each other over the handphone, keeping a close eye on what is being chattered is top prioirity. Having emegered from Chaiman Moa's red revolution from the seventies, the China of today will have a whole new set of problems to tackle. It used to be that the citizenry had to be very careful what they talk and who they talk to. Communism does'nt allow freedom of speech, or for that matter, talking bad about the government. Not only that, they have to sing in praise of their leaders, something that is no more in vogue and fully embraced in North Korea. Like people anywhere in the world, praising for government actions is no more popular. People learns about hypocarcies and talking good about the government is one of the worst kind of hypocracy! The latest sign of government intolerance of freedom of speech is the banning of Skype in China. Why is it banned? First, like Blackberries systems, it is a foreign thing. With both systems, the government can't get its hand on tapping what is being conversed. That means they can't effectively put their control on how many people pass of chatting their hatred for the govenment. Without adequate control, the populace could topple the government, perhaps with a little bit of help from the west!

The second big problem in China is running inflation. But why inflation? As China progressed into a world economy, there is a dicotmy between the rich and the poor. A rising middle class is emerging fast, due to the large trade surplus the China has achieved for the past ten years. Unfortnately, this rich sector is unevenly distributed. Large industrial towns , mostly in the western coastal regions is causing a lot of dissent from the poorer states in the interia and western regions. As China grew from an agricultural base, and is still helped by a large rural sector with meagre incomes, it is finding great difficulty in distributing of wealth among the populace. Imbued with endemic corruption in its governing structures, channeling of wealth to the poor is proving to be difficult. Agricultural lands are illegally taken away for sale to private entities for conversion to industrial entities. The poor gets poorer and the rich gets to stake away money in overseas accounts. There is a great fear that another revolution might come along, manned by the destitute poor and rural have nots. The leaders are of the oppinion that they can't use the army, two million strong to control any rebellion. The first sign of an agrieved government is of course the new law in controlling asset bubbles by way of getting the banks from upping their cash asset value. Still, the property market, populaced by the rich is running at a dangerous pace. A burst, no matter how small will affect the economy of China, bringing with it more problems for the poor and also affecting the world. Like China, the other  progressing economies also have property bubble on their hands.

 

Paid for news is just like a sore thumb

Right now, news is delivered to our devices free of charge, well, almost free for most anyway. The digital world is associated with free things. Anything less will be taken as against the well being of the society. You get most of the headlines free of charge, but some established media firms are toying with paid news. How would people react? Already two London news providers have turned into paid services. The rest of the band is taking a close look to see whether it would work out at all. But reports are coming in that readers have been bottoming to more than half when the service was free. Obviously, people would not like to pay for something that they have got for free. Unfortunately for news media, people do not want to pay. Why don’t they get advertisers to pay? Search engines have been using the model successfully for years. That is the way things work. Somebody comes along and pick up the tab and the rest get to enjoy them for free! So why can’t they do it with news? Perhaps it is more of a holding cash thing than getting payment from advertisers? Getting cash first hand is always better than getting paid through a third party!

In truth, these news media are trying to test the waters. No harm done if nobody subscribes. They can always change course or close down or perhaps metamorphoses into something else! But no, media companies are addicted to collecting money upfront and that is the way it works. Anyway, they have to answer to their boards and getting food unto the table is what they know best. So pay is the way to go and no two things about it. Still, there is room for experiments. Just imagine? Let the boys get the news. Then put the news block up for auction. The highest bidder can sponsor the news just like any other auction. It is a commodity anyway, and it can be done with just a click of the mouse. Why not? With people picking up the tabs, it becomes a win-win situation. Media companies can then focus on collecting news. Advertisers are happy that they have played a part. And readers like you and me gets the news for free. This is the way to go; free news at your fingertip. Why, we do love to see advertisements don’t we? Anyway, paid news has also not forsaken the adverts. You will be used to it just like most of the web pages now. So I say, free news anytime!

China at great stress to pretend playing second fiddle

There wasn’t the usual press frenzy about China having developed the second fastest super-computer in the world. It was a very subdued reporting, almost rid of the usual fanfare in achievement reports. Well, nobody bothers about second place right? But it was nevertheless significant, coming from a developing country with over a billion people to feed. There is always the fear that one gets beaten and beaten squarely. That perhaps the press boys were worried about as well. Especially the boys in MIT and those that live on glamor reporting, it is going to be a case of one always looking at who is lurking behind their shadow! A second place is certainly intimidating enough. With government support, there is no telling when they will be number one, or perhaps, they are already number one!

It was off course not surprising. After all, China is realistically the number two largest economy in the world. It has always been the western dogma that a country without a free flow of ideas will never win the day, in terms of technology. And China is far from a free country. Why then should people slot it out to put such a state to great heights? Understandably, China is a far cry from what it used to be. For one thing, they have been able to put their scarce resources in the right place that matters. They are no political squabbling s, or at least none observable. Like the Olympics, there are able to train their people from the ground up. And they don’t have a free press to do the reporting. Certainly, Sun Zhu’s warfare techniques would have put into practice.

Certainly, nobody knows about the fact that China has a silicon valley! Do you? But they have one at Zhongguancun. It is true that it is difficult to even pronounce it, and even more difficult to remember it. China, unknown to the rest of the world has liberated its educational system. It has almost 200,000 foreign students studying there, and not only that, the students have very good rapport with industries. They can talk and discuss about industrial focused problems and they go about putting their minds to work. America has also used the model of foreign students to add verve to its curriculum. The ideas from foreign students, largely from China, have contributed to great solutions. China has now caught up and it would not be a fiction of imagination that the day will come soon when we talk about a Harvard, or a MIT of China.

We do have too much oil after all

There is plenty of oil under the sea. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a testament to that, never mind what BP would want you to believe. Those hundred thousand of barrels gushing out from the earth is a signal to mankind to once again splurge on using gas hungry autos that give total comfort. Yes, there is enough of oil underneath the earth’s crust to last us a few more generations. But there is a caveat. You will need to spend billions of dollars just to explore all the continental surfaces surrounding all the continents. Although there is enough of money for such purposes, the people who have the power of approving them just do not have that kind of patience to wait for their ROI. They prefer something faster.

Thus mankind is made to suffer for paying top dollars for their oil. As another sign of an excess of oil in our lives, you will see that there is also oil in our cooked foods. If there is no more oil, the first enterprise to close shop will be the fast food joints. These outlets which have mushroomed all over the world have a problem that is seldom mentioned. It is the excess oil that comes from all those automatic and clinical frying ovens after the chicken, beef and butter have been served to eager young clients that is a headache to be disposed off. Where there is strict supervision from the authorities, these expanded oils are clinically disposed of. In third world countries, where supervision is slack, the oil is just dumped into the drains.

Actually, in the real world, we do have a problem of too much oil. Lately, news has been out that a patent on oil eating bacteria has been granted. It was initially rejected because the bacteria was there all the while and granting a patent to it was seen as going against the laws laid down by the fathers of our patent system. But in reality, we really need to have these bacteria put in soap powder boxes such that man could easily dispose of unwanted oil. It is not that we could not recycle them, but more of a need for a practical system to collect them from our many kitchens.

There is another problem though. What is gong to happen when these bacteria has consumed the oil? Are we going to dispose of them again? Will they cause harm to our environments? Nobody knows. And the company that has got a patent for it does not want to comment. Perhaps the company selling them may want to collect them back for recycling? Still, we will not be able to solve our excess oil problem as long as we continue our excesses. We just eat and eat our way to sickness. That is the way advertisement tells us. Because we live to eat, we inherently over consume and left all the waste strewn at our back yards and in land fills. We are actually depriving the future generation of clean and sustainable environment.

If we take a god look at great China, we will find that although there are 1.3 billion people over there, there is not much waste of oil. Food are judiciously apportioned to the majority of the population. You will not be able to see overweight people there in the streets. People just eat as little as possible and you would not be able to detect oil in their drains. Thus it would be a good idea to take a cue from that factory to the world.

Would you want to see more efficiencies? How about going to this great place to start up an environmentally sound business. Yes, it is called MSC Status, the place where things are doable.

Computer in a biochip

It has always been a time consuming process to design computer circuits, but in change of technique, engineers have used nature as a model. They have discarded etching circuits on a silicon chip and instead, using the DNA model to churn out thousands of circuits in the shortest of times. This will have deep implications for the electronic industry. Dr. Chris Dwyer, assistant professor at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, demonstrated that by simply mixing modified bits of DNA and other molecules, he could create billions of identical, nano sized, waffle-looking structures. By mixing it with different light-sensitive molecules, these self assembled blocks showed programmable traits like logic gates and switches that can be assembled into running programs.

The assembled molecules, known as chromosphores acts like light sensitive switches and thus can be used as computational models. They can also be used in biomedical apparatus and bio-medication. When light is shone unto the chromophores, it gets excited and gives off energy which is then absorbed by a neighboring chromosphore. From there, a different wavelength of light is given off. There is therefore an input light and an output light of a different wavelength. It thus models like the one and zeros of computer code, and at a much faster rate and less heat to cope with. Unlike the old model which has somehow reached its physical limitations, the new model will open much more possibilities and at nano scale to boot.

China’s regard for intellectual property protection is an urgent issue!

It was at the end of January 2010 that foreign firms operating in China got their shock in the form of the China government’s new condition for those bidding for government contracts. The new condition is that those who want to bid for government tenders must not only have their intellectual property registered in China, but will also have to them registered with a Chinese as one of the inventors. As if it is not already a hassle to register their IPs in China (it has to be translated into Mandarin), foreign firms will have to part with their IP to an ‘indigenous’ citizen of the Republic of China. In short, China is telling all those interested in getting a part of the 50 billion dollars annual tender to get real.

Since then, there has been a hue a cry especially from US firms having business set-ups in China. They had brought up the case, seemingly serious to President Obama. But what can the president do? It is after all the host country’s right to change its rules when it deems fit. Apparently the ruling was put into place during a time of weakness in the US. With run away debts, and a weakening dollar, Washington was in a weak position to pressure for China to return to status quo, as far as trade practices are concerned. Bearing in mind that Washington was trying to force China to revalue upwards its Yuan, China must have waited for such an opportune time to strike back.

Of late, officials from Washington have been flying in to China with accelerated frequency. And the main issue is always China must revalue upwards its Yuan so that Washington could continue to sell goods back to China. But we all know that China need not accede to any giveaway now since it has a large amount of its reserve parked in Washington. Just with a mere mention of transferring away of its reserve holdings will shake the dollar to tumble out of control! Then again, China could revalue its Yuan but counter work with other subsidies just like Washington subsidizing its cotton growers at the expense of others. Trade issues are always dynamic, and the Chinese have learn a lesson or two from the west, so no matter how much Washington use arm twisting techniques, it won’t work with the Chinese. Perhaps buying less for a longer duration might work!

What now 4G

You probably will remember those halcyon days when 3G licenses were awarded right? There were bidding and crazy auctions that stunned governments and people alike. That was Europe then, where 3G licenses went up for a few billion pounds which made governments rich like no business. Alas, 3G came and gone and nothing much happened. In terms of people’s living, not much has improved. Back then, video calling was supposed to make drastic changes to people’s life. Unfortunately, not much has changed because service providers were hampered by the huge bill they had to pay for the 3G licenses. The result was that video calling services had to be priced way too high for mass adoption. You will find it hard to catch any one using video call nowadays. It was so to speak a total failure, partly blamed on cost and partly blamed on insufficient bandwidth. And now, we are taking about going to 4G?

To be certain, there will be bidding all over again. Governments everywhere are a bit addicted to getting easy money. What more when most of them are facing huge budget deficits! Could we all survive another round of expensive telecommunication roll outs? Nevertheless, 4G technology providers are humming with eagerness about the introduction of the new technology. They say that with 4G, people’s life will change for the better. For one thing, with the increased speed of both upload and download, people will find new ways of doing things; like watching videos on their hand-helds all day long. Anyway, if we were to look at Korea and Japan, where they already run their services in their own 4G formats, there don’t seem to be any improvements at all. The only benefit is that people have more access to videos and movies. Certainly, one of the beneficiaries is the porn seller!

Looking at the technology players that are strong at touting 4G, we can see that the same number of providers but with a slight change in their constituents. American companies like Qualcomm and InterDigital are still ruling the roost. The rest of them consist of Nokia and Ericsson. The surprise however is Huawei which shows a strong contender for top system providers. It is a sign that China has arrived at the scene and others will have to take note of. But the way the do it is an example of sleuth and wisdom. Huawei came to the scene by way of supplier for 3G systems. In the short period, they had banked on being a reliable supplier of cheap support systems that the major players could not compete. With some dedicated backdoor research, they have managed to knock out a 4G system that delivers. But there is no telling what they can do in the future. Perhaps one day China might become the chief player for communication equipments in the world, just as they were the chief foundry to the world now!

Even China has to respect intellectual property rights, but only because of the World Trade Expo

It is indeed considered a rare event that China had to secretly negotiate with Japanese singer-songwriter Mayo Okamoto to get permission for using her song as the theme song for the Shanghai World Trade Expo which opens in May 1, 2010. It was not meant to be that way. The song was among many submitted by the public to be used as the theme song for the expo. Unknowingly, the organizing committee selected the song, without realizing that the person who submitted it had copied from Ms. Okamoto. Perhaps, even that was not intentionally done. But when the accusation of copying was posted on the internet, the expo committee realized that they had to do something, like seeking permission for the use of the song (even though it only faintly resembles Okamoto’s work), which in itself was rarely heard of in China. Fortunately, Ms Okamotor had agreed to allow the use of the theme, otherwise it would have been a big embarrassment for the organizer.


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This goes to show that even big bad giants, when faced with an embarrassing moment, would choose to eat humble pie when there are putting out their best act in front of a wide audience! Were it not because of the world trade expo, would China have acceded to such an act? Obviously not, if we were to look at those recent events like the tussle with Google and Yahoo! This would be a very good lesson for all of us. How to deal with the big bad wolf? Use trade sanctions or weapons of mass destruction? Certainly it will not work as shown by the intransigence of North Korea and Burma. The only way would be like the Shanghai case. Draw them out, let them face the world. Put them in a position where their face would be their destiny. When you are the showman, and the spot light is on you, no one will be allowed to make you leave the scene in disgrace. You just have to stay put and the show has to go on, whatever happens! Maybe all the shouting about China not respecting intellectual property rights is of no avail. Perhaps, relocating WIPO to Beijing might be a better option!

Is China observing intellectual property rights?

It is true. China is gearing up its machinery to practice intellectual property rights. But it is only protecting IPs that has an indigenous origin! It is protecting patents belonging to its own citizens, not those of foreigners. They have now informed foreign countries that they will only buy if there is a Chinese owned patent on the products and services. In other words, they have turn one hundred and eighty degrees and will only respect intellectual properties owned by Chinese. If foreigners wish to win state procurement tenders, they will have to dish out half of the inventor ship to Chinese citizens. That precisely is throwing up a wall to contain foreign imports. From court records, there is very little prosecution of its citizens for intellectual property infringements. But it does bring to prosecution where foreigners are caught ripping off Chinese video games!

We must understand that China is run by an authoritarian regime. What the authority says goes. No objection what so ever. And they know they are wining the intellectual property game. If required, China can close its doors now and still be able to make it to the next cycle. The west would have to look somewhere else for their markets, and in these bad climate, they and not China will be the first to go under. Such is the scenario: the new game is protectionism, and its survival for only the fittest. Obviously the fittest is the one with the most cash around. No matter what pressure the US is putting up, China will normally play the delaying game. One thing that comes to mind is the controversy over the Iranian nuclear embargo which Washington spearheaded. China has a lot of interest in Iran, and will not agree to any sanction, but instead see to it that its money is not getting burn.

China is now sailing to its near neighbors. For the moment, it is more interested in striking a working relationship with ASEAN, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Africa. It has already struck a free trade deal with ASEAN and will be signing more deals with Japan and Korea. It has used its large pool of funds to acquire companies around the world. It has bought iron mines, oil concessions, and other world brands. Whilst the west is struggling to overcome the recession, China is diligently building up its asset base. Its maxim is buying when it is cheap and when others can only look and not act. In the meanwhile, it is dragging its feet as far as revaluing its currency is concerned, much to the consternation of the US and the rest of the world.

Japan to drag China to the WTO Court!

Japan, like many of China’s other trading partners is peeved by China’s insistence of only buying from companies that have “indigenous innovation”. It is considering going into negotiation with China to trash out the issue, but in case it fails, then Japan would want the option to drag its erstwhile partner to the WTO Court in Geneva. However, like everything China does, there have so far been no clarifications of what constitutes as indigenous innovation. At issue is China’s government procurement of product and services which according to a report reached 90 billion dollars a year, and China’s insistence of foreign suppliers to register their intellectual property in China and also to have at least one of the inventors a Chinese citizen. Most suppliers see it as China unjust shifting its goal post and creating trade barriers in a time of economic uncertainties.

In reality, it is not only China that has created trade barriers, but almost every country has some sort of wall created. Take the case of the US. It is reported that the US is seriously taking up the suggestion by Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman’s call to put a twenty percent tariff on all Chinese imports besides the imposition of tax on Chinese steel products. So have Japan’s barrier to rice imports and the EU’s slapping of tax on Chinese nuts and bolts. China could have remained silent on the issue of state procurements but instead choose to make it known. Perhaps, it is China’s way of diverting Washington’s attention away from its insistence of China revaluing upwards its currency? Or maybe China is preparing to face the consequence of withdrawing its economic stimulus? But seriously, what can Japan achieve if it succeeds in bringing China to the WTO Court? It might loose more than it can gain!

Just who controls the patent system?

Do you know that there are over three hundred patent trolls? And together they owned about twenty thousand patents! What does it mean? It simply means they are the force to reckon with, and not the patent office! Well, the patent office (US) grants about a hundred and fifty thousand patents a year, but the patent trolls skimmed off the most important ones (those available for sale). The rest of the patents are kept in silos at universities and research institutions, and they will lay there gathering dust. With the bulk of the useful ones being in the hands of the trolls, it would mean that companies that have their own patents and are using them to make products have to be very careful, least they become the target of money extrication by the trolls. Even if you think you are safe using your own patents, you might eventually be made to pay because the trolls can exact you to pay for their license by threatening you in court for disputed infringements. They have the money and they have good lawyers and anybody standing in their way will be brought to their knees by a mere lawyer’s letter of demand. Nobody could afford to be targeted by the trolls. This is just how powerful they have become.

Understandably, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are concerned. The very fact that the patent system was created to help people to come forward and have their inventions protected will ring hollow if the trolls have the upper hand. They are like the Mafia of the intellectual property world. If the situation gets out of hand, then nobody would be bothered to get their inventions registered. Industries would suffer. The world economy would suffer. Rest assured that more people would be brought to the courts for infringements, even if they did not infringe at all. Companies, big and small would not dare to innovate, and mankind will suffer even more. Already there is a prediction that the trolls will be targeting life sciences in future. They have been actively buying up all those bio-technology patents available from the market. With a shrinking budget, university research departments are quietly selling off quickly those patents just to bring in funds to continue research and developments. If you have been granted a patent, and that patent has a far reaching implication to the industry, then you can be sure that the trolls will call you up and offer you money that you can’t refuse! Such is the future and if you think that the trolls will sooner fade from the scene, you will be disappointed as there are more funds being channeled into new troll setups everyday! Our hope then will rest in the hands of USPTO who are reported to want to introduce new rulings to stamp out the influence of the patent trolls league. Will the good people succeed? Maybe it’s too late already! It is like asking if the authorities will ever get rid of the Mafias.

With mask will travel

Don’t be mistaken, these cyclists are not donning mask to filter out H1N1 virus. They are wearing the protective face cover to prevent sand and grit from getting into their lungs. This scenario is in China where sandstorms are getting very common. Scientist doesn’t know yet why the storms are getting so prevalent. It could be change in climate or perhaps too the deserts growing in size due to drought. Anyway, according to a World Bank report, 16 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are situated in China. China has of late being inundated with air pollution. On a bad day, whole cities can be shrouded in fine mist, and people going to work have to endure with traffic congestion due to poor visibilities. It was during the Beijing Olympics that vehicles were forced to be allowed on the streets on consecutive days; this to cut down on the number of cars in order that the air be cleared of smog. But looking at the pace of development in China, there is no telling when China can get a fresh envelope of clean air space. In the meantime, people will have to wear face mask, like wearing clothing!

Why is the China Market disappearing?

All right, China has 400 million people accessing the internet and 700 million mobile-phone users. So what you might ask? Of course these figures looked tempting, and it is not likely to be matched anywhere else. These figures have always being the chief attraction for businesses to relocate to China, but although it is salivating, there are other negative issues that are becoming of concern which could put paid to attracting more investments into China. One of the most highly profiled case is that of Google withdrawing from the search market in China. Why is it that a company with a thirty percent market share of the search market suddenly decides to get out of the China market? Was it really the purported censorship issue (as related by Google) that broke the straw? Or was it some other issue like intellectual property theft, or that hacking? Then there was the issue that web host GoDaddy that had decided to stop accepting registration for the dot CN domain. And ominously, and a sign of things to come, the Chinese court have jailed four executives of Rio Tinto for bribery and stealing of Chinese secrets. Of all things, foreigners are charged for corruption in one of the most corrupt countries of the world! What then is going to happen in this great market called China?

Slowly but surely, other issues began to surface. In particular, the way China did not go out of its way to accommodate Google shows that China has of late decided to look inwards again and don't really care a hoot about others, after it had a decade ago opened up its market to the rest of the world. Yes, China had made a pile of money, chiefly from American consumers and have now decided to close its door to do some spring cleaning instead! It was a great experiment by a communist government, and a successful one at that. Another significant issue is the condition set by the Chinese government with regards to government and state procurements. Early in 2010, the Chinese government came out with the edict that it will only allow procurements provided that the supplier must have intellectual properties like patents and trademarks registered in and possessed by Chinese. Not only that, foreign suppliers must relocate their R & D to China and open up their research to Chinese citizens. Suddenly a wall came up, erected to restrict foreign sellers of products and services. It was no small matter as the amount of state procurement was estimated to be about $90 billion in 2008. As the restriction comes in the wake of the revival of western economies, its implementation will surely spark off complaints.

Has the bamboo wall being resurrected again? We must be reminded that a large part of the industrial output in China comes from foreign investments. Now, if they are not now nervous about the restrictions, then they will surely be fidgeting in the coming months. It is evident that there has been a drastic swift in policy and one that comes at a most inappropriate time. Just when the west is depending on the Chinese to buy more of their products, the unjust move might spark off a trade war that will further depress world trades. In another critical move, the Chinese government has begun to sell of their holdings of US treasuries and repatriate the money back to China. This of course has sparked of concern in the money market. There will be dire repercussions all around and chief among the victims will be the US dollar. However, even though China might want to draw down their amount of US bonds, they are afraid that if there is a too drastic a sell off, the US dollar might tumble to an unacceptable value relative to the Chinese Renminbe and thus rendered their remaining bonds worthless. So, the most likely scenario is that the drawdown of the US treasuries will be tightly controlled, and proceed according to the actual situation on the ground.

No matter how we view China, we must be reminded that China is being controlled by a group of cadres with a strong support from the army. It is a country run by guns and we can’t expect it to change in anyway. Its experience with market economy is in no way acceptable by all, and there is an under current of a large sector that has been left out of progress. With diminishing returns from farming due to shrinking farmlands and adverse weather conditions, the rural have-nots are beginning to put pressure on the central government for something to happen to alleviate their sufferings. Of course the Chinese government knows about it, but because of lack of an effective administration and an endemic corruption, much of the aid earmarked for the poor does not reach them in time. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened tremendously, and there is nothing much the government can do about it, except to once again restructure the system to the one they had begun with. And that is the communism that Chairman Mao knew of.

What does patent rights and copyrights have to do with your lives? Well, to make it simple, go over to the Patent Agent to learn more.