Name: Why The U.S. And China Fight Over IP
Uploaded: 2020-02-02T14:42:47.000Z
Duration: 11 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Imagine Nike without the swoosh, McDonald's with no golden arches or

Trademarks and patents can make or break a company.

Most of the inventions that power the modern world started out as an

and there you are. Over the past decade, there's been an explosion of

claims from companies and inventors hoping to carve out their own

We are on the cusp of truly and extraordinarily revolutionary

technologies. Intellectual property is turning into a key

battleground between the world's biggest economic powers.

China now accounts for more than 10 percent of all trademark

We now have a peer competitor in China and we are at a critical

moment for the future of intellectual property.

More than 14 million trademark applications were filed worldwide in

At the same time, patent applications have surged more than 70

alone, intellectual property-intensive industries contribute

trillions of dollars to the economy every year.

So what makes trademarks and patents so valuable?

And why are the U.S. and China competing for them?

Inventions, works of art, music, lyrics and logos are all examples of

IP. Protection for intellectual property rights in the U.S.

goes all the way back to the Constitution.

In fact, in the body of the Constitution itself, the word right is

actually mentioned only once and it's with respect to intellectual

property rights. Congress passed legislation laying the foundation

And today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is located here in

Commerce Department. Right here, for example, we see Thomas Edison

What the patent system does is to create a perpetual innovation

machine, a pro-competitive system that forever creates more and more

innovation. Patents are one category of intellectual property in the

U.S. They give inventors exclusive rights for up to 20 years to make

and sell a product that offers a new solution to a problem.

Once a company's patent for a drug expires, competitors can copy and

sell generics that include the same ingredients.

You need an inventor to get a monopoly over their invention for a

short period of time to recover the investment costs.

Logos, slogans and brand names for a company or individual are all

trademarks. One of the most well-known trademarks comes from

Coca-Cola. The soda maker trademarked its signature logo in 1893 and

he does distinguished cans and bottles around the world ever since.

Trademarks are used to establish standards for brands for consumers.

So every time you buy a coke, you know it taste and quality to

expect. Trademarks a s long as you file periodic renewals and

continue to sell your goods and services will last forever.

They protect original works by authors or artists.

Songs, photographs or novels are all subject to copyright law.

That's why you see the big FBI warnings when you start a DVD.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has seen its fair share of

quirky innovations from Eddie Van Halen guitar support system to Bill

Anyone who has an idea for an invention, except for employees at the

Patent and Trademark Office, can file an application for a patent.

Unlike trademarks, you don't even have to show that you're selling

the product. One of the main points of the patent system is to

encourage innovation from those who otherwise wouldn't do it.

For many entrepreneurs, investors and businesses says patents and

trademarks are the lifeblood of innovation.

They can help turn an idea into reality and generate millions of

Mark Zoske is the CEO of Seattle-based gourmet salt Company

SaltWorks. The company holds more than 60 trademarks.

You have the people and you have your product, your suppliers, but

then you have your trademarks, which are your territory.

In that space, in the salt space, it is everything.

Salt was such a commodity that we really wanted ours to be above a

commodity. So we started with name brands so that instead of just

promoting the sea salt industry, we were promoting our sea salt.

Zoske says the trademarks have helped boost brand loyalty and fend

off imitators. The smaller the company are, the more important that a

trademark is because if you really catch fire with something, that's

the only thing that's going to differentiate you from someone that

has a lot of money that can put out a nearly identical product.

The U.S. Commerce Department estimates IP-intensive industries

trillion in value in 2014, more than one third of U.S.

GDP. That number is likely to go up in coming years.

have roughly doubled over the past decade as companies place growing

importance on their brands and move sales online.

There's been a huge change in trademark registration in the last 10

years because of Amazon and Facebook and all the Internet commerce

that's going on. In 2008, there was just around 250,000 U.S.

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Why The U.S. And China Fight Over IP

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