“Apple has some new ammunition with which to fight the rampant piracy of its products that is an ongoing problem in China,” Darrell Etherington reports for GigaOM.
“It was granted 40 patents in China, according to a new report Wednesday,” Etherington reports. “The patents mostly cover aspects of its mobile phones, but they apply to 37 of Apple’s products in total, including the iPad and MacBook Air, and also to the architecture of its Shanghai stores.”
Etherington reports, “The new patents will help Apple better defend its interests in China, where knock-off versions of its products [and retail stores] are extremely popular.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I was confused with how patents would help defend against piracy but reading this i think he means the copying of apple IP.
Wonder how enforcement is over there.
Not so good.
Hemmmok, i don’t really understand how these patents are going to help considering china isn’t really one of the nations that take these things seriously.
I’ve seen many counterfeit stuff in china ranging from movie disks to software. Doesn’t really seem like anyone is taking action to stop this.
Then again, this is apple we are talking about so they may have a way of dealing with these guys.
The idea that patents protect Apple in China is a huge joke. There is NO respect for intellectual property here in China, AT. ALL! You can find fake iPhones EVERYWHERE. $40 gets you a perfect knock off iPhone. Fake iPods, fake accessories, bootleg software, you name it! No fake Macs though :(.
This will make tracking down the copycats easier for Apple. In China the authorities need patents or whatever official papers to go after those factories, without them they are out of luck.
How would you walk to a factory as a police officer that is run by a city government or local communist party which are above you in real life. How about a factory run by former Army officers? With a Chinese patent paper in hand it’s lot easier, especially when your whole police unit gets beat up and in the court you can show that you were only the messenger. If you own a fake iPhone factory, how long you think you could do it until police or party guy shows up in your office demanding part of the profits for “protection”.
The good news is that with new laws coming every month the anti-corruption net is getting tighter, and those people realize too late that the ones they think are the little guys are actually working directly under the Chinese FBI.