Microsoft Can't Sell Windows in China

According to PC World, a Chinese court has ruled that WIndows violates a Chinese company’s IP rights.

Of course, China, where somewhere around 80% of electronic materials such as computer software, movies and DVDs, and other media are pirated copies, shouldn’t complain.

The problem is over the interpretation of a licensing agreement between Microsoft and the company in question; the company says that the fonts it owns are not included in the licensing agreement, Microsoft says they are.

We’ll see who wins in the Chinese judicial system. My best wishes and condolences to Microsoft (and I’m not usually on their side).

Oops, iPhone Trademark Already Taken In China AAPL

Oops, iPhone Trademark Already Taken In China AAPL.

THIS is why a trademark search is important BEFORE you invest $millions into branding your product. If you intend to market internationally, get the trademark search done in every country that you intend to market in. And search to register in the correct category or categories….

iPhone can’t be iPhone in China. There’s a Chinese company that has registered the mark in the telephones category (Apple owns it for hardware and software). That, folks, is about 1/4 of the world’s population to which Apple cannot market under the current name of the product without going through some sort of legal maneuvering (getting the existing Chinese mark invalidated or reaching some sort of deal with the mark’s owner).

Best laid plans….