iPads Seized In Chinese Trademark Dispute

[watercooled]

Thought I'd already seen a thread on this, but maybe it was on another forum. Anyway...

http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16171946

Bit rich the Chinese calling copyright on anything, and 'Chinese Trademark Law' - such a thing actually exists? But I have no sympathy whatsoever for Apple, it's not like they don't take every possible opportunity to sue anyone and everyone who has been in the same time zone as an iThing while designing their own device...

[shaithis]

I thought it was funny when I saw it on the news recently......and they even rubbed it in by going down the street and buying a fake iPad

[megancheung]

people keep telling me and saying that china is doing well..... but that is only because we keep sending our jobs out to them to make all the things we use.... when we cant afford to send the jobs out to them when our countries fall they will come crashing right behind us if not before....

[Saracen]

Perhaps Apple ought to just pull all manufacturing, and trade, out of China. After all, they aren't the only country with a cheap but technically literate labour force.

[watercooled]

They're also notably good at plagiarising stuff (note the subject of the thread), from components to military equipment. E.g: Their new jet fighter looks remarkably similar to the F-35 wouldn't you say?

And their gov't turns a blind eye to it.

[Saracen]

...... E.g: Their new jet fighter looks remarkably similar to the F-35 wouldn't you say?

....

Nah ...... different colours, and decals. And serial numbering.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The J20 looks nothing like a F35.

J20





F35





The J20 is a much bigger fighter and uses fully movable vertical stabilisers which the F35 does not have.

If anything the layout of the F35 is very similar to the Yakovlev Yak-141 which first flew over 20 years ago.





Yakovlev was a consultant on the F35 programme.

[watercooled]

I was referring to the J-18, plus China are known to have stolen data from Lockheed Martin about the plans for the F-35. Besides, most of their planes are obvious rip-offs of Russian designs.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I don't disagree that China may have copied some designs but it is far less than many people think.

The only picture I have seen of the J18 is a frontal one which may or may not be photoshopped and even the F35 owes a lot to the YAK141 too. Many of their current designs were produced in co-operation with Russian companies. The J11(license built Su27) and L15 were built with the participation of Sukhoi and Yakovlev. Look at the Aermacchi M346 which is basically an Italian version of the Yakovlev Yak130 - the L15 is a supersonic version of both of these aircraft. The FC1/JF17 had Mig as a design consultant and design work from the original Mig33 was included in the project.

This is not uncommon TBH. Even with the BAe Harrier,which was modified in the US as the AV8,or the Embraer Tuccano which BAe built a modified version of for the RAF you can see the same thing. Look at aircraft like the AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo,KAI T-50 Golden Eagle and Mitsubishi F-2 for example. They all have similarities to the F16 in planform and this was because Lockheed Martin was a consultant on all three projects.

The J11B and J15 OTH are probably unlicensed variants of the J11. The J8,JH7,JL8 and J20 OTH are indigenous efforts. The JL8 is a reasonably popular jet trainer which is used by many air forces around the world.

Even the J10 was supposed to be a full IAI Lavi copy but the cancelled J9 had a similar configuration and TBH the close cropped delta and canard configuration is a very common configuration in the last 30 years. If anything the Viggen was one of the first large scale production fighter aircraft to introduce this in the 1970s(although unlike the later canards is a stable design) and literally every recent European fighter has followed this layout.

In many cases it is down to the similar trains of thought in aeronautical R and D at the time. You can see this in the past when VG wings were in vogue.

Even the Russians have been accused for decades of ripping off US and European designs.

One could argue that the Boeing 727,Lockheed Tristar,Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-154 ripped off the design off the design of the Vickers VC10 and Hawker Siddeley Trident too. People said that the Russians ripped of the design of the Tupolev Tu-144 off Concorde even though it used a different type of wing,ie,a cranked Delta and had canards. In fact a whole load of US SST studies looked like the Concorde and Tu144 but never entered production(look at the mockup of the Boeing 2707).

[watercooled]

To my knowledge, they are far more guilty of blatant plagiarism than any other country, mostly because their gov't shields them from foreign companies. For another example, did you see the Top Gear episode showing lots of 'new' Chinese cars which are completely obvious rip-offs of European designs. The US have also been finding poor-quality counterfeit Chinese parts making it into their military equipment.

The J11B is just an unlicensed copy of the Flanker - as you say it was originally built from kits as the J11, until China made some excuse that it wasn't meeting expectations then cancelled the rest of the order and started making copies. And unlicensed is a key word, the likes of the Harrier/Tuccano are produced under license from the MFR i.e. they pay for it. There's a difference between borrowing design aspects from existing equipment and just making an identical copy from blueprints.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Maybe,but like I said many of their designs have been developed with foreign consultation so it is no wonder you can see familiarities with foreign designs in their aircraft. A lot of Chinese companies have legitimate links with companies like Eurocopter,Airbus and Embraer and aircraft like the EC120 were co-developed with Chinese companies. Not all their aircraft are copies.

It also seems the Chinese parts you are talking about are electronics:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/made...alarming-rate/

Many of the parts are old recycled US ones shipped back to the US!! WTF?? It sounds like US defence contractors probably were pulling a fast one,by buying cheaper bits to save on production costs. Not surprising TBH,as US defence contractors are making a mint in the US.

[mikemikemi]

Not siding either way but you guys reminded me of an article I read ages ago:
http://gizmodo.com/5590796/this-new-...-a-cheapo-copy

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Not siding either way but you guys reminded me of an article I read ages ago:
http://gizmodo.com/5590796/this-new-...-a-cheapo-copy

A few inaccuracies with the article. Firstly the Su33 is designed by the Sukhoi design bureau which is Russian. Secondly,no reverse engineering really needed to be done.

The Su27 was built under license in China under the designation J11. Initially planes were built from kits supplied from Russia. However, as with the SU30MKI in India subsequent J11s had more and more local content which was part of the agreement. There was no need for China to copy much as almost all the plans of the Su27 were supplied to China by Sukhoi. However,some key parts of the avionics and engines were not supplied. There was some noise that the the codes for these key avionics sections were cracked by the Chinese to the chagrin of the Russians(supposedly). OTH,it seems this has not stopped the Russians from selling Su35 fighters to China this year.

The J11B and J15 have key differences. The first is the shift to mostly indigenous avionics and weapons systems. The second is the major shift to an indigenous engine,the WS10A,which needed some changes to the airframe. This removed the need to import engines from Russia,although it does seem that due to the immaturity of the engine they probably are still using AL31F engines in most of their J11s still. I suspect Russia still supplied the engines for the J11B.