Would You Like That Patent Super Sized?

Just so you understand the depth of Chinese ingenuity, here's a story in the Washington Post this Morning about a new push by China to increase it's domestic patent registrations. Their plan is to have 2 million patents per year compared to America's 530,000 per year. Now that sounds like a real plus for them and makes everyone else sound like sour grapes, doesn't it? The thing is, many of those new patents in China are questionable because they don't require any review of the patent application. Just fill out the form and you are granted a patent. So what, you ask? So the company gets the patent and then goes out and sues a major company for infringement. There may be no real, honest infringement, but it's often cheaper for the major to pay off the little phony patent holder than it would be to go to court. It happens all the time. Even here in the U.S., but on a small scale. So I'm waiting for these Chinese patent holders to take on big guys over technology they've stolen from U.S. companies. Here's how I think it'll come down. A big American company, doing business in China, with it's manufacturing there, asks a Chinese parts company for input on the design of some new part. That's being done already. But the parts company rushes out, before the design is complete and registers it. Not so hard with this no review process. Suddenly the big international company can't use it's own idea without paying through the nose for it. Then that same parts company is the only one who can make that part and for a whole lot more money. If you don't like it, you can buy the finished product from another Chinese company for less money. It's made by the parent company of the parts maker. Now you may see this as conspiracy theory talk, but what's to stop it from happening?  After all, China is ruthless in it's war on foreign industry and technology. I'm just saying that America and the rest of the world better prepare themselves for this kind of assault.