Bonum Certa Men Certa

No, China Isn't Most Innovative, It's Just Granting a Lot of Low-Quality Patents

Strategic move from Xi, even if a short-sighted and misguided one (attracts trolls)

China's trolls
From "sewed in China" to "sued in China"



Summary: Patent extremists are trying to make China look like a role model or a success story because China grants far too many patents, spurring an explosion in litigation

Patents and innovation are not the same thing. Everybody knows that, especially patent examiners (not officials). At IAM, the patent trolls' lobby, facts don't matter. Earlier today it published the headline "US innovation rates could quadruple if women, low-earners and minorities effectively targeted, research finds" (a questionable headline in its own right). So I opened the source paper and the said study does not correspond/agree with IAM's claims. They should know that patents and innovation are not the same thing and hypothetical assertions aren't facts (and the paper mentions patents, which correlate/relate to wealth, not innovation). But leaving that aside for a moment (it's a new IAM writer, they lost a lot of staff lately), let's consider the other blog post IAM published today. Composed by a more senior writer who advocates patent chaos in China, the post admits that patent "infringement cases in China are skyrocketing," including many from patent trolls (like those IAM cheers for).



Is this actually a good thing? Self harm, destruction, legal battles and tax in the form of legal bills come to mind. It's like the United States a decade ago. Before it sobered up and regained some sanity.

"Self harm, destruction, legal battles and tax in the form of legal bills come to mind."Looking at Watchtroll, another patent extremist, earlier today it published a post titled "WIPO Stats on Patent Application Filings Shows China Continuing to Lead the World" (leading in what? Feuds?).

As we said a week ago, this WIPO data actually shows China granting rubbish patents. That's over-patenting. WIPO does not weigh these numbers based on quality and SIPO alone received over a million patent applications last year (for the sake of comparison, the US has about 10 million patents since inception a very, very long time ago).

Intellectual dishonesty, in the name of profit, runs deep in the patent microcosm. They try to use "China!" to shame Western countries into a regime of patent maximalism, wherein just about everything that exists (even nature itself) gets patented. Yes, the EPO actually grants patents on life. It would be material of comedy if it wasn't so real!

"When too many patents get granted nobody is happy except lawyers and attorneys."Earlier today Managing IP (slightly more moderate than IAM) published this paywalled article wherein "Guanyang Yao and Qi Hu discuss recent cases, issues and developments in patent damages awards in China..."

It's all about litigation. When I was younger China was renowned for manufacturing and stigmatised as a ripoff artist. Does China wish to become stigmatised as a troll instead? The sad thing is, Xi's vision for China when it comes to patents is disturbingly short-sighted and it failed to heed the warning from the United States. When too many patents get granted nobody is happy except lawyers and attorneys. They don't produce anything. They add virtually nothing to GDP. They're a tax.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
 
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead