Solomon2
BANNED
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2008
- Messages
- 19,475
- Reaction score
- -37
- Country
- Location
The Chinese say there's no such thing as stealing ideas.Reverse engineer? Stealing and not paying patents is the better phrase.
The Russians themselves apply patent protections and technology-transfer guarantees rather selectively. A good example is Russia's development of jet engine technology. They obtained a few as a goodwill gesture from the Brits in the 1940s after WWII under the condition that they not be reverse-engineered nor used for military purposes. The Russians agreed to everything but once they had the engines promptly did both, explaining that since they couldn't manufacture the engines exactly and precisely to the specification of the original it wasn't a copy.
A more recent example was the construction of an American-designed truck factory in Russia during the 1970s. All its production was supposed to be for exclusively civilian purposes but a few years later the trucks were employed by the Soviet Army in Afghanistan - indeed, it was difficult to find these fine vehicles in any civilian application at all.