Microsoft is licencing some pre-commercial technologies to two Chinese software start-ups in a move that shows Chinese companies are prepared to take IPR protection seriously, according to the US giant...   more »

Latest results from SMIC, China's largest chip company, show a Q3 loss on soft global demand. I keep wondering why China feels it needs to be a major player in the cut-throat semiconductor foundry business. Particularly as its now faces a lawsuit from Taiwan's TSMC...   more »

A neat twist to the long-running saga about China and IPR infringements. This time its a Chinese company that sued a western rival for infringing its patents. Netac Technology, China's leading maker of Flash memory products, filed a complaint in a US court against New Jersey-based PNY Technologies alleging the latter infringed one of its patents...   more »

Bad news for China's 17.5m bloggers. The government wants bloggers to register with their real names because "some bloggers anonymously disseminate irresponsible and untrue information via the internet," according to Xinhua...   more »

Still think China slavishly copies western technologies? A string of recent announcements suggest that China's oft-voiced desire to develop hi-tech products based on home-grown IPRs may slowly be coming true...   more »

WPP, the world's biggest advertising agency, has acquired 70% of Beijing Century Harmony Advertising, a leading internet advertising firm, in a move which shows internet advertising is entering the mainstream in China...   more »

Good news for western businesses looking to establish a trading or distribution operation in China. Its now a lot easier than it used to be thanks to a new regulation known as Circular 8. But the bad news is China tops the list of Asian countries that pose the greatest tax challenge, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.    more »

Great Wall Motor plans to ship 500 of its Hover SUV cars to Italy. There's no criticising the timeliness of its move into Europe's fast-growing SUV sector even if my heart sinks at the thought of yet more SUVs clogging Europe's congested cities.   more »

Hong Kong proposes a novel solution to the thorny problem of protecting intellectual property in the chip industry. Hong Kong's new science park has created an IP servicing centre (IPSC) to offer a range of services covering the licensing, hardening, integration and verification of integrated circuit (IC) designs.   more »

We tracked down a photo of the Telsda phone at the centre of Nokia's IPR lawsuit. At first sight, it does look remarkably similar to Nokia's distinctive 7260, which presumably is why Nokia has chosen this model as a test case.   more »