The Hardware Hacker

Part 2thinking differently: intellectual property in china

China has a reputation for lax enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws, and that leads to problems like fake and copycat products. This part of the book takes a nuanced look at China’s IP ecosystem and finds a novel way to reward innovation that serves as an alternative to traditional Western IP practices.

First, consider this question: what, exactly, constitutes a fake? It seems relatively straightforward to answer; anything that’s not an original must be a fake. The situation becomes muddied, however, when you consider the possibility that some contract manufacturers produce fakes by running a ghost shift, an after-hours production run not reported to the product’s brand owner. ...