14 replies to this topic

[Martian]

For 2009, China passed Italy to claim the ninth-highest rank for countries that receive the most patents in the United States.

Patents By Country, State, and Year - All Patent Types (December 2009)

Patents granted by the United States for the year 2009.

1. U.S. 95,037 patents
2. Japan 38,066
(Greater China 10,638)
3. Germany 10,353
4. South Korea 9,566
5. Taiwan 7,781
6. Canada 4,393
7. U.K. 4,011
8. France 3,805
9. China 2,270
10. Italy 1,837
...
India 720
Hong Kong 587 (Patent office counts Hong Kong as a separate entity)
Singapore 493
Russian Federation 204
Brazil 148

For 2009, Greater China's 10,638 combined total patents (i.e. China's 2,270 + Taiwan's 7,781 + Hong Kong's 587) are greater than Germany's 10,353 patents.  Greater China would rank third on the U.S. patent list.  The patent ranks are important because they help to explain why China is the world's largest exporter and Germany is the world's second-largest exporter.  Patents play an important role.

----------
[Note: These are my comments from last year on "Greater China outnumbers German patents."

There are 70,000 Taiwanese companies on the Chinese Mainland. It is my guess that many Chinese exports incorporate not only Chinese patents, but also Taiwanese patents. The Taiwanese were a perennial #4 in U.S. patents received until they were passed by South Korea in 2008.

While the current number of Chinese patents appears to be insufficient to support a large high-tech export base, the combination of Greater China (i.e. Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong) patents should suffice.

Greater China's 10,370 patents (i.e. China's 1,874 + Taiwan's 7,779 + Hong Kong's 717) are greater than the number of German patents at 10,086.

Taiwan (10/09)
"Significant migration to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland began as early as A.D. 500. ..... There are a number of small political parties, including the Taiwan .... in China, and more than 70000 Taiwan companies have operations there. .... In keeping with our one China policy, the U.S. does not support Taiwan ..."

[Martian]

China's $576 Billion High-tech Exports

Greater China's patents play an important role in China's high-tech exports.

For 2009, due to the Great Recession worldwide, China's top two high-tech exports for "Electrical machinery & equipment" and "Power generation equipment" dipped to $537.1 billion US dollars.  However, if we add in the $38.9 billion from "Optics and medical equipment" then the overall high-tech exports for 2009 are $576.0 billion U.S. dollars.  See "Table 5: China's Top Exports 2009 ($ billion)."

http://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html

[Martian]

Greater China's Innovations Are Showing Results

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/conte...75034779697.htm

"The 50 Most Innovative Companies April 15, 2010, 5:00PM EST

The 50 Most Innovative Companies
For the first time since Bloomberg BusinessWeek began its annual Most Innovative Companies ranking in 2005, the majority of corporations in the Top 25 are based outside the U.S. The reason: the new global leaders coming out of Asia
...
The extended Top 50 list is dominated by companies from Europe, Asia, and, in another first, South America (Petrobrás (PBR) of Brazil at No. 41). China's rise is biggest. A year ago its only representative was PC-maker Lenovo Group (LNVGY), at 46. This year Greater China is tied with Asia's postwar powerhouse, Japan, thanks to showings by BYD, Haier Electronics (27), Lenovo (29), China Mobile (CHL) (44), and Taiwan-based HTC (47). The age of Asian innovation has begun."

[Martian]

China is a growing source for U.S. patents

I will keep an eye on the growing trend of U.S. companies using China-based researchers as a source of innovation and the basis for filing U.S. patents.

Microsoft Needs China: 6.5% of Its U.S. Patents Have Roots There | BNET Technology Blog | BNET

"Microsoft Needs China: 6.5% of Its U.S. Patents Have Roots There

By Erik Sherman | Feb 26, 2010

When looking at the Microsoft (MSFT) patent application for turning touch-screen mobile devices into graphics tablets for computers, I notice something interesting. The two listed inventors are both based in Beijing. That got me curious about how much research Microsoft has undertaken in China. The answer is well under 10 percent — small, and yet significant.

I base my conclusion strictly on patent applications and granted patents. First, I searched the database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for Microsoft patent applications where at least one inventor was based in China. The number was 1,173. The total number of patent applications Microsoft has on file is 18,085. So Chinese-based research contributes to roughly 6.5 percent of the company’s patent applications.

A bit more searching let me refine the results over time. The earliest Microsoft patent applications with an inventor in China came in 2001. Since 2005, Microsoft has had 13,020 total patent applications, of which 908, or 7 percent, include inventors in China. Since 2008, Microsoft has filed 2507 patent applications, 206, or 8.2 percent, had inventors in China. I didn’t go into 2009, as it takes upwards of 18 months for patent applications to become public and show up in the database.

I then looked at granted patents for which Microsoft filed the application since January 1, 2001; there were 9,936. Over the same period, about 5.7 percent, or 571, had inventors in China. Since 2005, 262 of the 4,022 patents granted to Microsoft, or about 6.5 percent, had inventors in China.

For Microsoft, China has clearly become a serious location for research — which may partially explain why the company has said that it’s fine with Bing operating in the country, even as Google (GOOG) has tried to make its “standoff” with Chinese authorities a positive PR move. Bing may have little search share in China, but Microsoft has some significant reasons to keep the locals happy.

Image composite by Erik Sherman."

[Martian]

Taiwan's AU Optronics wins big patent dispute against Korean LG Display

Foolish Korean electronics giant LG Display falsely accused Taiwan's AU Optronics of infringing four key patents in the manufacture of liquid crystal displays (i.e. LCDs).  An U.S. court found that the opposite was true.  Korean LG Display had infringed the four key patents that belonged to Taiwan's AU Optronics.

Total U.S. patents granted by the U.S.P.T.O. (i.e. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) to Taiwan is a cumulative 94,579 patents.  For South Korea, it is only 72,332 patents (See Patents By Country, State, and Year - All Patent Types (December 2009)).  South Korean giants should think twice before they make false accusations against Taiwanese companies.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Patent-Infring...,news-6673.html

"LG Dispay LCDs May Be Banned Worldwide
6:50 PM - May 3, 2010 - By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide US

A patent infringement case may block the sale of certain LG LCD panels.

ZoomComputerworld reports that Taiwan-based AU Optronics (AUO) is trying to halt the import and sale of LG Display LCD panels across the globe. If an injunction is successful, this could ultimately hurt consumers and their choice of LCD options, as LG currently commands over a quarter of the LCD panel market.

Over the past three and a half years, LG and AUO have been in a legal scuffle in regards to patents covering material and processes used in making LCD panels. Friday marked the end of the long, multifaceted battle, with AUO emerging as the winner based on LG's inability to prove that the rival company infringed on its LCD patents.

But in February AUO filed a counter-suit and won. Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. said in a 77-page verdict that AUO provided enough evidence to show that LG literally infringes on patents asserted by AUO--LG was unable to prove otherwise. Now AUO is warning consumers not to purchase "unauthorized infringing products from LG for sale or use in the U.S. without the need for further court action."

Computerworld said that LG may file further appeals or motions in its case, or it may reach a settlement with AUO that may prevent the possible ban of LG-based LCD screens. As it stands now, over the last six months, LG has shipped more LCD screens across the globe than any other LCD manufacturer. A cease in that kind of distribution could however allow lesser-known brands to step forward and fill the void."

[Martian]

China Leads All Nations in Publication of Chemical Patents According to CAS

Let's hear it from the "global expert" CAS on China's chemical patents.

China Leads All Nations in Publication of Chemical Patents According to CAS

"China Leads All Nations in Publication of Chemical Patents According to CAS, the World's Most Authoritative Publisher of Chemical Information

Columbus, Ohio (November 23, 2009) - Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), the global expert on chemical information, reports that China's patent office is now the world's leading producer of patent invention applications in chemistry. China trailed Japan's patent office, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for more than a decade, but passed the USPTO in 2005, WIPO in 2006, and exceeded Japan for the first time on a monthly basis in 2008. In 2009, China will record an entire year as the number one producer of chemical patents, and CAS projects that trend to continue.

"Chemistry is widely recognized as 'the central science,'" according to Dr. Matthew Toussant, senior vice president of editorial operations at CAS. "Chemical patents are a critical component to many industrial processes and scientific realms, including medicine and natural products," said Toussant. "In fact, on average, 35 percent of new patent invention applications involve chemical substances."

"CAS has been recording the phenomenal growth of patent documents in the last decade, with the number of chemistry-related patent publications by the USPTO and WIPO growing by more than 500 percent," said Christine McCue, vice president of marketing at CAS. "Meanwhile, Chinese invention applications increased by nearly 1,400 percent, with much of that growth taking place in the pharmaceutical sector. More than half of the Chinese patent applications during this period were from inventors within China, which surely indicates that Chinese scientists now also recognize the importance of monetizing research discoveries."

Hundreds of CAS scientists, aided by state-of-the-art technology, identify and record the chemistry obscured in patents that standard search engines cannot locate. Proprietary technology systems developed by CAS enable scientists working around the world to analyze patents from 60 global patent authorities. Patent documents meeting CAS selection criteria from nine major patent offices are available in CAS databases within two days of the patents' issuance, and are fully indexed in less than 27 days. CAS scientists add value to the data they collect, entering chemical names, a unique CAS Registry Number, literature references, property data, commercial availability, preparation details, spectra, and regulatory information from international sources into CAS databases.

Media Contact

Crystal Poole Bradley
614-447-3611
cas-pr@cas.org"

[Martian]

European Patent Office (EPO) says that patents lead to higher GDP/economic growth

Serious organizations, such as the European Patent Office (EPO), around the world believe that patents lead to higher GDP/economic growth. See EPO - The economic importance of patents

"The EPO is convinced that patents could have "an even stronger impact on economic growth" once the patent system is better known in Europe and a patent culture develops similar to that of the United States."

[Martian]

China to lead world scientific research by 2020 - Telegraph

"Chinese scientists are particularly strong on chemistry and materials engineering, both considered central to the country’s industrial development and economic future.

The number of peer-reviewed papers published by Chinese researchers rose 64-fold over the past 30 years.

China is now second only to the US in terms of academic papers published, and will take first place by 2020 if current trends continue.

It comes after last week’s announcement that China is poised to replace Japan as the world’s second largest economy, behind the US.

The boom in China’s scientific research was disclosed in an analysis of papers published in 10,500 academic journals across the world."

China to lead world scientific research by 2020 - Telegraph

"China to lead world scientific research by 2020

China will be producing more scientific research than any other country within a decade, according to an analysis of the nation’s “awe-inspiring” academic growth.

By Matthew Moore
Published: 11:22PM GMT 25 Jan 2010

Vast state investment in schools, universities and research programmes has driven the rapid growth, with academic discoveries rapidly tapped for commercial potential. Chinese scientists are particularly strong on chemistry and materials engineering, both considered central to the country’s industrial development and economic future.

The number of peer-reviewed papers published by Chinese researchers rose 64-fold over the past 30 years.

China is now second only to the US in terms of academic papers published, and will take first place by 2020 if current trends continue.

It comes after last week’s announcement that China is poised to replace Japan as the world’s second largest economy, behind the US.

The boom in China’s scientific research was disclosed in an analysis of papers published in 10,500 academic journals across the world.

The figures, compiled by the publisher Thomson Reuters for the Financial Times, showed that Chinese scientists had increased their output at a far faster rate than counterparts in rival “emerging” nations such as India, Russia and Brazil. Although India has long been tipped as the most likely threat to US academic supremacy, the study found it now lags well behind China.

India has almost been caught by Brazil in terms of the number of papers published, with researchers in the South American country leading the way in agriculture and biology. Russia has seen a relative decline in scientific research since 1981.

“China is out on its own, far ahead of the pack,” said James Wilsdon, of the Royal Society in London. Jonathan Adams, a research evaluation director at Thomson Reuters, called China’s growth “awe-inspiring” although he acknowledged that the value of the findings by its scientists were still “rather mixed”."

[marshall]

China to lead world scientific research by 2020 - Telegraph
...
...
China will be producing more scientific research than any other country within a decade, according to an analysis of the nation’s “awe-inspiring” academic growth.
...
...
“China is out on its own, far ahead of the pack,” said James Wilsdon, of the Royal Society in London. Jonathan Adams, a research evaluation director at Thomson Reuters, called China’s growth “awe-inspiring” although he acknowledged that the value of the findings by its scientists were still “rather mixed”."

Although I agree with the overall trend and conclusion, I think the timeline is too optimistic, though not by much.  China has widespread problems related to academic standards, uneven quality, widespread plagiarism and corruption.  Despite these problems, they are all gradually being mitigated.  As I explained earlier, the academic trends are indisputable.  China is going to lead the world scientifically sometime after 2020, perhaps as early as 2022.  This process will continue unabated for decades until China's realized scientific potential culminates in total world scientific dominance.  Once this potential is fulfilled, barring a nuclear holocaust or bioengineered virus targeting East Asians, China will at the minimum, retain the equivalent of at least the rest of the World's scientific output combined.

How far ahead of the rest of the world China will advance will probably depend on whether or not China eventually imposes its own technology restrictions on developed countries.  America restricts its F-22A fighter even from its closest allies, for good reason, it's an ace up its sleeve.  Someday, China will have technology equivalents to the F-22A in different fields of endeavor and at that time, it should implement its own technology restrictions to gain a long-term and enduring strategic competitive advantage.

Until then, China will continue to endure the various technology restrictions and sanctions that are supposed to restrict China's technological development.  Ironically, those same technology restrictions have in many ways helped Chinese industry by allowing them to largely monopolize their respective industries.  It must be painful for companies having lost these huge business opportunities while watching Chinese companies technological and commercial strength increase to the point where they will eventually be competing against them or already are.

[marshall]

For 2009, China passed Italy to claim the ninth-highest rank for countries that receive the most patents in the United States.

Patents By Country, State, and Year - All Patent Types (December 2009)
...
----------
[Note: These are my comments from last year on "Greater China outnumbers German patents."

There are 70,000 Taiwanese companies on the Chinese Mainland. It is my guess that many Chinese exports incorporate not only Chinese patents, but also Taiwanese patents. The Taiwanese were a perennial #4 in U.S. patents received until they were passed by South Korea in 2008.

While the current number of Chinese patents appears to be insufficient to support a large high-tech export base, the combination of Greater China (i.e. Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong) patents should suffice.

Greater China's 10,370 patents (i.e. China's 1,874 + Taiwan's 7,779 + Hong Kong's 717) are greater than the number of German patents at 10,086.

Taiwan (10/09)
"Significant migration to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland began as early as A.D. 500. ..... There are a number of small political parties, including the Taiwan .... in China, and more than 70000 Taiwan companies have operations there. .... In keeping with our one China policy, the U.S. does not support Taiwan ..."

China is demonstrably climbing the patent ladder.  However, I do not think U.S. patent applications by a foreign country is a good measure of technological capability of that foreign country.  In the case of U.S. patents, this is obviously useful mostly within the U.S. and those countries recognizing U.S. intellectual property.  So, export oriented countries that export heavily to the U.S. have a much greater incentive to protect their IP with U.S. patents.  This is just common sense.  So, given China's large exports to the U.S. I would say that their ranking is actually indicative of weakness considering their relative position vs. say Japan and Germany.  This is not to say that I believe this will remain the case.  China's technology/science trajectory looks like an extreme exponential curve which really only took off at the end of the 1990s and accelerated dramatically after 2004.  Since it takes several years for products to make it to market after their related technologies are developed, expect to see high technology from those product categories China is not already competitive in between now and mid-decade.

[Martian]

China forges ahead

China Now Ahead Of US In Patenting And Commercialization Of Bioethanol

"China Now Ahead Of US In Patenting And Commercialization Of Bioethanol
by Staff Writers
Columbus OH (SPX) Jun 30, 2010


File image. [Corn-oil ethanol biofuel]

Chemical Abstracts Service reports that in 2009, China surpassed all other countries in the production of bioethanol patents, emerging as the global leader in the commercialization of bioethanol research.

In the CAS Chemistry Research Report: China Takes Lead in the Commercialization of Bioethanol, CAS examines 40 years of scientific research into biofuel development. Their key finding is that although U.S. researchers continue to publish more scientific research about bioethanol than other countries, China now produces more bioethanol-related patents than anyone. Other important findings include:

+ The U.S. published 105 journal articles related to first- and second-generation bioethanol research in 2009, more than any other country.

+ However, in the same year, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People's Republic of China issued the most bioethanol-related patent documents (156).

+ From 2000 to 2009, global research literature on second-generation bioethanol (derived from non-food sources, such as wheat stalks) grew 586 percent, including patenting activity that skyrocketed 2,341 percent.

+ Research into second-generation bioethanol significantly outpaced examination of first-generation (derived from edible feedstocks) and third-generation (derived from algae) bioethanol.

+ U.S. researchers are foremost within the newest category of bioethanol research: third-generation, or algae-based, bioethanol.

"The global research focus on second-generation bioethanol shows a rising interest in a category of fuels widely considered more sustainable, affordable, and environmentally friendly than bioethanol available today," said Christine McCue, vice president of marketing at CAS."

[Martian]

China's R&D Spending More Than Double Korea's



The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - China's R&D Spending More Than Double Korea's

"China's R&D Spending More Than Double Korea's
July 1, 2010

China is emerging as a formidable rival to Korea in science and technology as it invests twice as much as Korea in research and development in the fields. According to the Korea Industrial Technology Association on Wednesday, China's 100 biggest companies invested a combined US$33.76 billion in R&D in 2008, 2.3 times larger than Korea's $14.72 billion.

China's five largest firms far surpassed their Korean counterparts in R&D spending, with the exception of top-ranked China National Petroleum Corp. which was outspent by Samsung Electronics. China exceeded Korea in investment in almost every sector including textiles, metals, machinery, mining, and utility and service industries. Korea was the leader only in the fields of electro-mechanics and electronics.

Recently China has been making waves in state-of-the-art science and technology. The Chinese-developed Nebulae ranked second on a list of the 500 most powerful supercomputers released at the International Supercomputer Conference last month.

Huawei, the nation's leading communications device maker, filed the most applications for international patents and trademarks in 2008. Early this year it clinched a deal to build a next-generation Long Term Evolution network in Sweden, the home of telecom giant Ericsson, alarming U.S. and European companies.

Chinese companies are also distinguishing themselves in green technology. The nation's mining and energy firms are focusing on eco-friendly power generation technologies to reduce pollutants by gasifying coal. In the rechargeable batteries sector, companies such as Shenzhen-based BYD are making names for themselves in the world market.

"China is forging global partnerships with market leaders in the electric car industry while conducting its own research to rapidly absorb advanced technologies," Park Rae-jung, a senior researcher with the LG Economic Research Institute said. "The country's solid financial resources will further facilitate its technological development."

englishnews@chosun.com / Jul. 01, 2010 08:22 KST"

[Martian]

A possible shortcut for China to compete with Samsung and Intel

China has plenty of money, but it is currently behind in LCD and microprocessor technologies.  To quickly catch up, China will need to expand the China-Taiwan ECFA (e.g. free-trade agreement) and attain Taiwan's assent for mainland companies to acquire or invest heavily in Taiwanese companies.  At a minimum, China needs to achieve a licensing agreement of technology transfer from Taiwanese companies to mainland companies.

To achieve near-parity with Samsung, China can form a joint-venture, alliance, or outright buy Taiwan's AU Optronics (see news article below).  Also, to acquire the core technologies to compete with Intel, China will have to make a move on Taiwan's VIA (see second news article below).  China can make things interesting for Samsung and Intel by acquiring Taiwanese companies that possess LCD and microprocessor technologies.

The road to China's true economic superpower lies through Taiwan.

LG Dispay LCDs May Be Banned Worldwide

"LG [Display] LCDs May Be Banned Worldwide
6:50 PM - May 3, 2010 - By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide US

A patent infringement case may block the sale of certain LG LCD panels.

ZoomComputerworld reports that Taiwan-based AU Optronics (AUO) is trying to halt the import and sale of LG Display LCD panels across the globe. If an injunction is successful, this could ultimately hurt consumers and their choice of LCD options, as LG currently commands over a quarter of the LCD panel market.

Over the past three and a half years, LG and AUO have been in a legal scuffle in regards to patents covering material and processes used in making LCD panels. Friday marked the end of the long, multifaceted battle, with AUO emerging as the winner based on LG's inability to prove that the rival company infringed on its LCD patents.

But in February AUO filed a counter-suit and won. Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. said in a 77-page verdict that AUO provided enough evidence to show that LG literally infringes on patents asserted by AUO--LG was unable to prove otherwise. Now AUO is warning consumers not to purchase 'unauthorized infringing products from LG for sale or use in the U.S. without the need for further court action.'"

VIA Technologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"VIA Technologies (TWSE: 2388) is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. It is the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets. As a fabless semiconductor company, VIA conducts research and development of its chipsets in-house, then subcontracts the actual (silicon) manufacturing to third-party merchant foundries (such as TSMC.)
...
While its Pentium 4 chipset designs have struggled to win market share, in the face of legal threats from Intel, the K8T800 chipset for the Athlon 64 has been popular.

VIA has also continued the development of its VIA C3 and VIA C7 processors, targeting small, light, low power applications, a market space in which VIA is successful. In January 2008, Via unveiled the VIA Nano, an 11 mm × 11 mm footprint VM-enabled x86-64 processor, which debuted in May 2008 for ultra-mobile PCs.
[edit] Legal issues

On the basis of the IDT Centaur acquisition,[2] VIA appears to have come into possession of at least three patents, which cover key aspects of processor technology used by Intel. On the basis of the negotiating leverage these patents offered, in 2003 VIA arrived at an agreement with Intel that allowed for a ten year patent cross license, enabling VIA to continue to design and manufacture x86 compatible CPUs. VIA was also granted a three year grace period in which it could continue to use Intel socket infrastructure."

VIA Launches VIA Nano Processor Family - Legit Reviews


"The first 64-bit, superscalar, speculative out-of-order processors in VIA's x86 platform portfolio, VIA Nano processors have been specifically designed to revitalize traditional desktop and notebook PC markets, delivering truly optimized performance for the most demanding computing, entertainment and connectivity applications, including Blu-ray Disc HD video playback and the latest PC games, such as Crysis. The VIA Nano processor family leverages Fujitsu's advanced 65 nanometer process technology forVIA Nano logo enhanced power efficiency, and augments that with aggressive power and thermal management features within the compact 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package for an idle power as low as 100mW (0.1W), extending the reach of power efficient green and silent PCs, thin and light notebooks and mini-notes around the world."

[Martian]

China's money will hasten its Loongson microprocessor technology advancement

After consideration, I retract my former statement that "the road to China's true economic superpower lies through Taiwan."  If you have lots of money, there is usually a company that is willing to sell you the core technologies for the right price (e.g. Microsoft licensed Spyglass' web-browser tech to create Internet Explorer to compete with Netscape's browser; see newslink below).

MIPS is a RISC (i.e. Reduced Instruction Set Computing; pronounced as "risk") processor.  On the other hand, an Intel x86 is a CISC (i.e. Complex Instruction Set Computing; pronounced as "sisk") processor.  Anyway, the division between the theoretically more-efficient RISC versus CISC processors has lessened due to hybridization of the technologies (e.g. the CISC designers "borrowed" the best design elements of the RISC technologies; see newslink below).


Loongson CPU ("Dragon Core" at http://epicchinesethings.wordpress.com/2010/01/)

Technology Review: Blogs: Guest Blog: Chinese Government to Purchase Stake in U.S. Semiconductor Firm

"Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Chinese Government to Purchase Stake in U.S. Semiconductor Firm
The investment would represent China's first ownership stake in the firm behind part of its home-grown Loongson processor.
By Christopher Mims

Chinese language news sources are reporting that the Institute of Computing Technologies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is considering plans to buy a 20% stake in MIPS technologies, the California-based semiconductor IP development firm founded more than 20 years ago by John Hennessy, who is now president of Stanford University.

The sale is significant for two reasons. The first is that MIPS is a storied company, whose original chip designs, while now used primarily in embedded devices, once powered everything from desktops to supercomputers, and are still used as teaching platforms in many electrical engineering programs. The second, more important reason this sale matters is that China's home-grown Loongson processor runs an extended version of the MIPS architecture, and the Institute of Computing Technologies (ICT) has a full architecture license that allows its engineers to both build MIPS-powered chips and to extend the architecture itself with new instructions. This has allowed the ICT to develop successively faster generations of Loongson processors, from the first prototype to the Loongson 2F, which is currently available in netbooks and low-power desktops from Chinese manufacturer Lemote. The third generation of the Loongson processor might even be fast enough to allow China to build the world's fastest supercomputer using Loongson Chips.

ICT is following in the footsteps of countless tech companies before it (e.g. Apple and Imagination Technologies) by acquiring a stake in a company that makes intellectual property that is essential to its products. MIPS has so far declined to comment on this potential acquisition.

MIPS is a small company and does not manufacture chips. Instead, like its competitor ARM, MIPS maintains, enhances, and licenses the existing MIPS architecture. If I'm reading its quarterly reports correctly, it has a market capitalization well south of $100 million, which means that acquiring a 20% stake in it would be trivial for the cash-rich Chinese government, though perhaps quite significant for the ICT and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which no doubt have their own budgets.

MIPS' architecture has long been the only portion of the IP behind the Loongson processor that wasn't entirely invented and controlled by organizations within China--potentially a sore point for government backers of a processor that seems to be as much about national pride as advancements in the field of semiconductors. By buying a piece of MIPS, the ICT has taken a small step toward addressing that issue."

Complex instruction set computing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"CISC and RISC

The terms CISC and RISC have become less meaningful with the continued evolution of both CISC and RISC designs and implementations. The first highly (or tightly) pipelined x86 implementations, the 486 designs from Intel, AMD, Cyrix, and IBM, supported every instruction that their predecessors did, but achieved maximum efficiency only on a fairly simple x86 subset that resembled only a little more than a typical RISC instruction set (i.e. without typical RISC load-store limitations). The Intel P5 Pentium generation was a superscalar version of these principles. However, modern x86 processors also (typically) decode and split instructions into dynamic sequences of internal buffered micro-operations, which not only helps execute a larger subset of instructions in a pipelined (overlapping) fashion, but also facilitates more advanced extraction of parallelism out of the code stream, for even higher performance."

- PM4700


"The R4700 processor implements the full MIPS R4000 instruction set and features:

    * 64-bit floating-point unit
    * 32 orthogonal 64-bit registers
    * memory management unit
    * 32kB 2-way set associative, write-back cache"

Spyglass, Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"Spyglass, Inc. (former NASDAQ ticker symbol SPYG), was an Internet software company based in Champaign, Illinois.

The company, founded in 1990, was an offshoot of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and created to commercialize and support technologies from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Prominent among these was the Mosaic browser, of which Spyglass licensed the technology and trademarks, but not the source code, to develop their own Web browser. Spyglass Mosaic's codebase was then licensed to Microsoft and became the basis for their Internet Explorer."

[Martian]

Only number 9. But i thought chinese goods are have high majority in american electronic market.

But china attaining great economy from this

Setting aside South Korea and Taiwan, two outstanding newly-industrialized countries, the rest of the countries on the top ten U.S. patents list are all members of the G-7 (i.e. the most senior industrialized countries in the world).

It is an achievement for any country, let alone a developing one, to surpass a member of the G-7 or Italy in this case.  China's quick ascent up the ranks for U.S. patents is breathtaking and her sustained growth rate is equally impressive.

As I indicated in my original post, there are over 70,000 Taiwanese companies operating on Mainland China.  Furthermore, there are at least one million Taiwanese businessmen, technicians, engineers, and scientists that live on Mainland China.  Those one million Taiwanese have become direct participants in China's economy.

While China's 2,270 U.S.-granted patents last year are impressive, it is inadequate to be a match for Germany's 10,353 patents.  However, as you said, "Made in China" electronics have a substantial share of the American market.

China's distinction as the world's largest exporter (e.g. obviously ahead of Germany's place as world's second-largest) can be explained by combining Taiwan's 7,781 patents and Hong Kong's 587 patents to China's own.  The grand total for Greater China (i.e. Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) is 10,638 patents, which provides the necessary intellectual property heft to surpass Germany in both patents and exports.

The point that I wanted to make in noting China's displacement of Italy from the #9 rank in U.S. patents is that it is only a matter of time (e.g. 10 to 15 years) before China no longer needs to rely on Taiwan.  During the last 30 years, Taiwan's patents have been almost indispensable in generating the high value-added products exported by China to earn $2.4 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves.

However, as demonstrated by China's climb up the ranks for U.S. patents, the day is rapidly approaching when China will independently produce many thousands of patents to compete with Germany.