China and Intellectual Property: Good news for a change

On May 12, it was announced that that an "innovative", "homegrown" digital signal processor (DSP) chip, to be designed and manufactured in China, was a fraud. Even more interesting is that the announcement was made by not by a Western agency or international body, but by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).

The author of the fraud, "inventor" Chen Jing, was a Dean of SJTU's School of Microelectronics, which had been specially set up in 2003 to capitalise on the invention and its potential spin-off.  Chen was also CEO of Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Exchange, a platform established in 2003 by the Shanghai government, with $3.75 million in municipal funds.

It was SJTU that carried out the inquiry, triggered by postings on Chinese web sites in December 2005 and January 2006. The assertion was the homegrown chips were actually Motorola DSP Freelance chips with their logos sawn-off. The assertion was proved right. Sanctions were prompt and comprehensive. Chen Jing was fired and all university and public funding for his research stopped.

This action would indicate that at least some Chinese institutions, directly concerned with the IPR, have begun to take seriously the continuing international complaints about Chinese attitudes towards intellectual property. As recently as late April, the United States Trade Representative issued a report which singled out China as a top IPR enforcement priority and noted several areas of serious concern.

Of course, there are limits to all this. I could not find any mention of the Chen Jing inquiry on the English version of SJTU web site (my Chinese is not fluent enough to know whether it was published on the Chinese version). However, let's not quibble: it is a good sign. Hopefully, there will be others.