Mattel has another Barbie problem

Danwei points at another problems toy giant Mattel is having with Barbie, although it is not the one with lead in its paint as far as I can see. Although China Barbie focuses more on an adult audience, Mattels seems to think that we might be confused.

Without the help of Mattel we would never have found this site, so, thank you. Mattel only wants a 100,000 USD in compensation, that is pretty low for this high-end promotion.

Do you know this thief?

Earlier this week Chinabiz published this article I wrote for them. Now, I look at my radar screen and see that this guy has republished my article. He did not quote, but republished the whole article without permission and even without mentioning my name or the original source. That is stealing my intellectual property. How should I deal with this guy?He is a nasty thief and at least no honest people should do business with him, do you agree?

Hollywood threathens China with boycot

No love from Hollywood

With Silicon Hutong I could not stop laughing when I learned the movie industry in Hollywood is actually threathening China with a boycot unless something is done about the piracy.

Two days ago, MPAA Chief Dan Glickman (aka, Hollywood's hired gun in DC) told The Hollywood Reporter that if China didn't do something about ending piracy, the industry could choose to boycott China. I don't expect an official response - I think, once again, the government officials with remit over Hollywood's fortunes in China are probably too paralyzed with paroxysms of mirth to compose a response.

Silicon Hutong explains them why this threat is nonsense.

Google sorry for stealing

Google in China has apologized to Sohu.com for 'lending' the database of Sogou, its input system for pinyin. Google offered their excuses just ahead of a press conference by Sohu where it wanted to vilify its competitor for stealing. The ongoing discussion will get an interesting twist here.

Has Google Pinyin been stolen from a competitor?

A debate is emerging on the internet whether Google has for its newly released pinyin input system stolen the vocabulary of its competitor Sogou. When the US search engine would have committed such a gross infringement of the intellectual property of a competitor, even though it would have been done by local staff, that would put the company in a difficult position.
There are two different takes up to now. Yee and others point at awkward similar mistakes Google seems to have copied from the vocabulary of Sogou. The fact that Google has failed to respond to the accusations is already seen as an admission of guild.

China Web2.0 Review is an authority here and writes:

My take is that further discussion on this similarity case is not necessary. If Google really infringes Sogou’s intellectual property rights, they would sue Google. Is it possible that they all licensed vocabulary library from the same source? You will never know it.

I tend to disagree with both at this stage. The pinyin system seem to be much more than a vocabulary and you would have to compare more than only the vocabulary to substantiate the accusation - although Google does seem to have a problem here.
The fact that Google did not react at all is of course not good, but if they would have denied guild after the first rumors would have emerged, you would know they would not take the accusation serious at all. Google needs to have a thorough internal investigation, and they could have told us that.
I also do not agree with the argument that because Sogou has not started a court case yet, there is probably no case. Also Sogou needs to investigate the case and the systems is only out. Preparing a court case takes a long time and does not yet indicate that Sogou has already taken a position here.