Technology Transfer to China: Judgment Day Is Coming For US and European Car Industry

"Last Judgment"
as envisioned by Stefan Lochner in the car free year of 1435

The European and American automotive industry should wake up. Reuters quoted Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat SpA saying: "The excuse that we did not understand or that we underestimated the scale will serve no purpose. Rather we need to continue to work to make our industrial base more competitive, because the day of reckoning is inevitably coming."

He is referring to the partnerships between European and US car companies with Chinese companies that have transferred crucial technology to China. This is going to boomerang when the Chinese cars (built with European and US IPRs) will start to invade European and US markets in significant numbers.

Read the Reuters article here.

But wait. According to Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung, respectively CEO and CTO of Intellectual Ventures, non-Chinese companies might get a smaller part of the pie, but the pie will be growing. Read their Wall Street Journal article here.

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IPR/Espionage Ping-Pong Case: Fiat Sues Great Wall, Great Wall Sues Fiat

Fiat sued Great Wall, because it alleges that the Great Wall Peri infringes the intellectal property rights of the FIAT Panda. After this Great Wall sued FIAT at the Shijiazhuang People's Court, based on "evidence" provided by FIAT to the court that they made photo's of production facilities.

Fiat suspected Great Wall to have infringed its Panda's IPRs (ping), so it made photo's of Great Wall Peri's production facilities, so Great Wall sued Fiat for espionage (pong). Is this how it went? Is this how it continues? Ping-pong, ping-pong.

Read the China Briefing article here, or at the Financial Times, via the site of Autonews Gasgoo, here.

Comment of the week:
IP Dragon's friend Richard Osinga (writer and digital entrepreneur) wrote: "I guess the Chinese don't like it if an Italian car manufacturer calls its model Panda."

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"Great Wall Motor Not Infringing Fiat's Patent"

Reuters reports that Great Wall Motor Co Ltd made a statement saying that Fiat's claim that Great Wall infringing their patent was dismissed by Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court.

Read the Reuters article here and the Great Wall Motor's statement here.

The left picture is a Fiat Panda and right picture is a Great Wall Peri. Read more on the site of CarDesignNews, by Mr Eric Gallina, here.

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