¹ Unless somebody wants to pay me to do it. This gun for hire. I can be had. :-)
Patents and copyrights are essentially unenforceable against Chinese companies in China.
Before you get a patent in the US the USPTO publishes the patent on the internet for "comments and objections." DeepPockets, Inc. regularly scans the site files objections using their patent staff, and forces the applier into a complex, expensive, legal battle which small companies can't afford. A filed patent that is rejected by the USPTO is automatically in the public domain, meaning DeepPockets, Inc. gets to use it for the cost of keeping their patent staff around, which they have to do anyway.
In short: if you have a good idea, Shut Up.
Chris, can we have the story of that film you made with an LLP, again? Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
Social Investment Business
The "Common Source" approach I advocate is outlined there, and that is to put IP into the hands of a Custodian, and then to encapsulate all the rights of use and usufruct/use value within a Master Partnership agreement or protocol.
The outcome is new form of co-ownership or Common Source property right of indefinite duration. Essentially the entire Creative Commons property relationship is then encapsulated within a Corporate personality.
The result is an enterprise model which is both Open and Closed. It is Closed because only LLP members can use it, and Open because anyone who consents to the agreement may be a member.
It's worth pointing out that if all the stakeholders are members, then limitation of liability is unnecessary. That is why I wax lyrical about the LLP being the first example of an Open Corporate. (Cost)-Free limitation of liability is IMHO a very dubious add-on in terms of the public interest. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
