China intellectual property rights

But it s a risk, and you are exactly right. We do see the growth of foreign competition in the demand for their services, for example, the ability of Procter Gamble to establish relationships with universities and the People s Republic of China without as much concern over intellectual property rights. U.S. universities are aware of this and are so scared ofit that they cannot even talk about it. So it s an issue that is not very clearly recognized or articulated. 

Despite the fact that patents have the prime purpose of protecting intellectual property and commercial rights of individual companies or people, and also those of other organizations, they are a very important vehicle for the spread of information. Patents are bought, sold, and licensed to be used by third parties in the same country or in other countries. In the United States alone, every week about 12 new fuel cell patents are issued. About 500 companies are holders of at least one patent in the field (Khan, 2004). The distribution between countries is highly nonuniform. For instance, of the 1582 general fuel cell patents published in the fourth quarter of 2007,51% came from Japan, 15% from the United States, 9% from South Korea, 6% from China, and about 1% from European countries (Butler, 2008b). 

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