Apple Ordered to Halt iPhone 6 Sales in Beijing Over Patent Infringement Ruling [Updated]

[Belgique]

Everything about China makes me sick. Their way of dealing with anything foreign is disgusting, communist scum. They will never topple the might USA (I'm not even American)

well said
[doublepost=1466191239][/doublepost]Next month Chinese leaders will claim, Pepsi was stolen from them....after that they will say the US Flag was stolen from them

 

[Hieveryone]

The Beijing Intellectual Property Office has ruled that Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringe on the patent rights of another smartphone sold within China -- Shenzhen Baili's 100c device -- leading to the possibility that Apple may have to cease sales of its handset in Beijing completely. Apple is expected to appeal to the Beijing Higher People's Court and the Supreme People's Court in attempts to keep its two handsets in circulation within Beijing.

However, as Bloomberg points out, if the case turns out badly for Apple, lawsuits that the company face in the future could potentially look back at the Shenzhen Baili ruling as a precedent. Beijing has a population of 21.7 million people, so it could have a larger-than-expected negative impact on a territory that Apple has already struggled with in the past.
Just last month, Apple lost the exclusive rights to the name "iPhone" in China, after a ruling by the Beijing Municipal High People's Court favored leather goods maker Xintong Tiandi Technology. Apple has stayed headstrong in a retail rollout plan of new stores and locations for its Chinese users to visit and purchase its products, but the company still faces unexpected roadblocks in the country due to its strict internet policies.

Update: In a statement given to CNBC, Apple confirmed that both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (along with newer models) are "available for sale today in China," and that the company is already going through the appeal process in Beijing.

Article Link: Apple Ordered to Halt iPhone 6 Sales in Beijing Over Patent Infringement Ruling [Updated]

This doesn't make sense. If anything, a lot of products in China are similar to Apple products.

 

[guanyu158]

A huge component of China's economy is derived from their export of products to the US. If China does not want to play fair with us, let place an import tax on every product they make! We still hold the cards as we are the biggest consumer of their industrial and labor complex. The problem is no one in our government has the gonadal fortitude to stand up and protect our businesses

The last time I checked, European Union was the largest trading partner to China. US is the second.

 

[MasterRyu2011]

So what is the iPhone known as in Beijing? Apple Phone?
[doublepost=1466191406][/doublepost]

The last time I checked, European Union was the largest trading partner to China. US is the second.

So basically, the US is the largest trading country to China...
[doublepost=1466191466][/doublepost]

well said
[doublepost=1466191239][/doublepost]Next month Chinese leaders will claim, Pepsi was stolen from them....after that they will say the US Flag was stolen from them

Maybe they're still bitter about that whole gunpowder fiasco so many hundreds of years ago.

 

[AVEGA]

In regards to people asking to have these iDevices made in USA:

That's never going to happen.

1) American's can never produce the number of iDevices required to fulfill the consumer appetite.

2) The workforce in America is 9 to 5 attitude and that includes sick days, holidays, personal days, etc. In China you work or you don't eat and long illegal hours considered in the USA is the norm regardless of whatever AUDITs are performed on these facilities over in China.

3) The (toxic) materials needed to produce these goods are most likely banned in the USA and because we are a developed nation we care about safety first. In China life is cheap, literally. They don't give two hoots about what is toxic as long as the contract orders are fulfilled.

4) Pay in China is a joke vs USA. In the USA you want to work 9 to 5 with all the benefits and get paid well. But these days I see people want $15/hr pay min but yet do nothing even close to the $7.xx min wage they are given. LAzy yes but that's the way of life here where everyone feels entitlement to everything with very minimal effort.

5) Where are you going to source all these material supplies? China owns nearly all the vital materials needed to produce the goods. Why have these supplies shipped here from China rather than just made there where it's sourced?

6) The profit margins - this should be #1 priority for every single capitalistic business in the USA. Why make $100 profit margins per product when you can make $600? How do you think Apple have this much cash on hand? It's because they know cheap expense = bigger profits. Argue what you will that's how capitalism works. Simple business math. The lower the cost of something made the more money you make.

So as long as it's cheap over there in China there will never be any Apple products made in the USA. NEVER. The bean counters and fake Wall Street gambling scumbags will never ever let that happen.

I said ANOTHER country. I also said that he would Threaten them. Talk big and make them scared. How many people will be out of work because of this ? Play that game. Start making them in Tibet and say you recognize them being another nation. Steve Jobbs was a big jerk and if he were still alive he would totally do those things. That's my point. Would Jobbs actually do it ? Probably not but he would consider it, maybe make it in Pakistan or something

 

[farmboy]

Umm, hate to break it to you - but we're in no position to negotiate. They hold too much of our debt. Bribe just needs to get bigger.

You see, a big lever, such as the US debt to China, has two ends, either of which can apply pressure.

In other words, you owe, so you also own. It's just a question of how you're going to use it. You wanna get paid in a timely manner, here's what you gotta do....

 

[guanyu158]

They're dumping US debt because the RMB is in freefall and they're having trouble paying back the debt that was taken out in USD; and need to stablize a currency they wanted to offer as a competitor for global trading to the US Dollar... it also forces the price of imported goods to skyrocket and exported goods to fall - which is what their economy depends on. It's a stark contrast to the US and UK - and what the EU has done with the Euro... create a strong currency to increase the standard of living for their citizens.

This is ********. Euro to RMB is down from 11:1 in year 2008 to 7:1 now. USD to RMB is down from 8:1 in year 2007 to 6.5:1 now. By selling USD, it raises RMB value. It actually hurts China's export as goods from China becomes more expensive.

 

[farmboy]

I mean... no they don't, in actuality. Our foreign debts are 1/3 of the total debt... and China sits at 8% of the total... so roughly 1/4th of 1/3rd... the largest amount of debt is money loaned from the Social Security Trust Fund at 16%... so just think about that; you, personally as an American, are owed *double* what an entire foreign country with 1 billion people is owed in social security alone - that's not factoring in what you might be owed in other avenues to the American people... which comprises the entirety of the other 2/3 of the debt.

We aren't just in a position to negotiate, we can buy the entire country of China several times over and have spare change for dinner on the way home. Yes, our economy really is that large. Our national assets are 1400% what the debt (GDP) is. So just remember... the next time a politician says they want to cut Social Security, or raise the retirement age -- what they're really saying is they don't want to pay the debt they owe to you and you've already paid in.

While I agree in general terms, you are repeating a common myth: They don't owe you anything. Social Security is a tax, not a savings account. Now, all the promises and the "social contract" and expectations are one thing, but the legal obligation is for the government to pay back to the fund, not you. They may or may not modify that obligation as they see fit in the future.

 

[bartzumbari]

Why yes, yes I do. 1.29 trillion. Guess how much we own of THEIR debt. Last numbers show the US holding around 1 trillion of their debt. Big whoop. It's a global economy. People act as if we should be scared of them. Yeah... no thanks.

Holding debt is the new cold war. No one is going to call it.

Treasury notes don't work like that. You can't just call them in. You have to go the open market and sell them which, in China's case, would destroy the value of their investment if they tried to do that.

Of course China bought that debt in the first place to subsidize their products (deflating currency).

 

[kdarling]

So what is the iPhone known as in Beijing? Apple Phone?

You mean the part about Apple losing exclusive rights to "iPhone" in China?

That just means that a leather case company can also use the label "iPhone" on their products.

Apple still has exclusive use of "iPhone" for actual phones.

This is similar to the US, where as long as there's no likely confusion between categories, multiple companies can use the same trademark name. E.g. you could sell "Caterpillar" candy, because it won't be confused with "Caterpillar" bulldozers.

And before anyone objects that the name "iPhone" somehow automatically belongs to Apple, don't forget that Apple itself used that name without first asking permission from Cisco. Zero moral ground there.

 

[bartzumbari]

1.34 billion people.

1 billion of those people live in the Stone Age. It appears that China wants to put the rest out of reach of foreign commerce. So the attractiveness of that market seems to be getting more hypothetical all the time.
[doublepost=1466194076][/doublepost]

Bingo. One of Tim Cook's Big Mistakes was that he put all of Apple's eggs into one basket.

I'm normally not a knee-jerk Tim Cook basher (there are already too many in MR that attack Tim Cook on everything), but I really think he screwed up big with this "China-or-Bust" policy, and this is a huge near-sighted mistake that goes way back to his COO tenure during Steve Jobs era.

Don't they have a large facility in South America? I

The worst thing about this is that while China can block Apple sales in China and Chinese companies can sue for infringement, Apple can't do the same unless the Chinese phone is exported to the US and other markets, even when Chinese companies make blatant iPhone clones and clones of other Apple products to sell exclusively to the Chinese market.

This is the problem with selling to China, they do not participate in a global patent and copyright system and they have massive engineering firms set up exclusively to reverse engineer and duplicate technology from overseas. Since they have a built-in market of a billion people, and a huge and growing middle class sector, there is no reason for Apple to be sold there and Apple won't get the kind of sales they were ever hoping for there.

If 1 billion mostly Stone Age Chinese is a lucrative enough market, then aren't 800 million relatively affluent Americans and Europeans and Japanese enough of a market?

 

[iOSFangirl6001]

Yup. They are both rectangular. How dare Apple! Lol. Seriously?

Lol yep

Only in China does a multi-billion dollar international company get halted by a knock-off producer. If China wants to be taken as a serious modern economy, they need to overhaul their IP law and culture.

Agreed

 

[farmboy]

I have worked for a number of companies in the biotech industry. We don't even bother trying to file for patent protection in China. It's pointless and unenforceable.

Same here. "Send us your patent, we know Chinese system, we will file it for you". Sure. Absolutely. And it was only relatively recently that JPO stopped providing western patent applications to Japanese companies to give them a heads up. First to File often meant first Japanese inventor to file. Somehow one of our patent applications and one of our Japanese competitors who filed subsequently contained the same typographical error. Curious.

 

[Gasu E.]

Or what? We'll send our current crop of politicos after them lol - do you have any idea how much American debt they hold? Do you have any idea the predicament we're in vis-a-vis China?

You mean the trillion dollars or so of T-notes that China holds? The ones they bought to hold the value of their currency down? The ones that, if they dumped them on the open market, would cause their currency to skyrocket and kill their export market, destroying Chinese industry, and creating massive Chinese unemployment? Is that the debt you are referring to? What of it?

 

[niun]

Shock?
Who holds ALL the cards here? China!
What is Apple going to do? Move production to another country? Source the raw materials from another country?
TC placed his balls in China's hands and they can squeeze whenever it suits them.

 

[farmboy]

You mean the trillion dollars or so of T-notes that China holds? The ones they bought to hold the value of their currency down? The ones that, if they dumped them on the open market, would cause their currency to skyrocket and kill their export market, destroying Chinese industry, and creating massive Chinese unemployment? Is that the debt you are referring to? What of it?

You're right. In the 21st century it is in nobody's best interest to have anybody's economy crater. Hills and valleys are exploitable and expected, crashes and panic are not. Fair winds and following seas works for everyone. Now if we can just keep from killing the planet, we just might make this whole thing work out.

 

[Glideslope]

Wow, this will hurt them, though I'm sure Apple will throw some money at them and fix the issue

Can't know for sure. Global Politics at play.

 

[mi7chy]

Apple gets a taste of its own medicine.

 

[zemoleman]

I think this has serious implications for anyone doing business in China. If they'll try to pull the rug out from under Apple, who's next? It is a bizarre ruling as originally reported.

 

[Lancer]

This has nothing to do with infringement.

Just look at how much stuff Chinese companies copy and they get away with it.

What exactly did Apple copy?

 

[zemoleman]

The path they are currently on can only lead to eventual world domination, which is definitely a scenario the freedom-loving western world should seriously contemplate and consider when trading and dealing with this economic powerhouse.

I agree, China's ultimate goal is to create a Chinese global hegemony. We are at war and don't even realize it.

 

[niun]

I think this has serious implications for anyone doing business in China. If they'll try to pull the rug out from under Apple, who's next? It is a bizarre ruling as originally reported.

I'm not so sure.. Many other companies exploit China for cheap labour and material but the products are destined for other countries.

Apple needs to grow it's one cash cow product. Desperately it seems. China and India are the last places it can go to. Oddly enough they are the ones playing hardball. Didn't happen with Russia...

 

[kdarling]

What exactly did Apple copy?

Nothing.

This situation, like many of the patent lawsuits that Apple has filed against others, has nothing to do with actual copying.

It's all about infringement. You can infringe a patent without knowing about it. All it takes is for someone else to come up with the same idea or design, and patent it first.

 

[apolloa]

Hmm. This sounds really familiar to me. Where have we previously heard one side saying that two devices looked almost exactly the same, whereas the other side claimed the differences should be obvious to anyone??

In every single court outside of America, where Apple attempted to raise a cases against Samsung copying it's design and lost, but they won in American courts perhaps???

 

[Darryl.Jenks]

Your graph sure leaves off at a suspicious point, Arthur. Would you care to check US oil production from 2005-present?

What country ? You mean the United Slaves ? The one bombing here and there under the coca cola banner ?

Do you know about below ?