The China Question
Im surprised by the amount of discussion there has been regarding China steeling corporate secrets from CPTC. History serves as a great educator on this subject. First of all, so many massive to small international companies are producing in China right now its hard to ignore the fact that not many companies feel Chinese corporate theft is an insurmountable problem. Not even though China is known as the knock-off center of the world. Pick a Fortune 500 company and I will show they are doing business in China.
Secondly, this phenomenom is not new. Remember Japan, Taiwan and S. Korea. The same was said about those countries decades ago at a time when intellectual property rights were as protected as a sailor on leave in Manila. Sure, those countries did grow and develop superior technologies in some areas as a result (none that we desperately need, I would add). But look at those countries today, still trailing and in so many ways. Innovation globally is still dominated by a country whose system from wet dream to next big thing to de facto standard is as close to free, efficient and open as is humanly possible. What country is that? The US. Simple fact, proven over and over again.
Innovation is occurring in our back yard. By the time China learns what CPTC NOW knows, CPTC will already be generations ahead. By then, we will all have made millions in CPTC and probably another one or two other great stories. At least that is my plan!
Thirdly, China joined the WTO ... they have to protect intellectual property, which at the minimum will slow down the copy cat brigade.
And finally, the core technology is used and developed here, not there. Composites are hard to reverse engineer. It has taken decades to get to where we currently are. If it were easy, 3M would not be stuck with a bad investment. They would spend far more money and effort than China ever would at this stage and they would have something more to show for it by now.
All in all, Im not the least bit concerned about Chinese corporate theft. Im suprised it is even being raised. Sign them up!
Bo Knows
