Fast Technology Transfer/IPR Infringements Slows Down China's High Speed Train

Photo: Danny Friedmann
High-speed train just got slower.
Getting a ticket even more so.

Infringed intellectual property rights can have negative influences on society. During the manufacturing process of these goods labour and environmental minimum standards, already challenged in China, can be ignored without ever being checked. Then the products of the manufacturing process can cause real safety challenges to the public.

China's high profile high-speed trains were so rapidly developed without much consideration to foreign IPR rights, see here. Now it becomes clear that not only IPR infringements were condoned, but that some safety standards seem to have been skipped altogether too, see here.

The Railways Ministry announced that the trains now need to slow down from 218 miles per hour (350 kilometers per hour) to 186 miles per hour (almost 300 kilometers per hour).