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Stensie4JC · 07-13-2009, 12:59 PM

My husband is Chinese and I've spent several years living and working in China, so I'd like to make a couple comments and correct a few inaccuracies.

Yes, a qwerty keyboard is used to input Chinese characters. in 1950 in an effort to standardize pronunciation the new Communist government created a system called Pinyin that used "our" alphabet to spell out Chinese words phonetically. The system could not replace the original written system of characters, though, because many words are identical when spelled on Pinyin and the only difference is how each character is written. The vast majority of Chinese words are two characters long, there are only a handful that are one character. There is also an input system that is based on common strokes used in Chinese characters, but it cumbersome and is not very commonly used.

The Kindle copy shown here was most likely reverse engineered by someone who got their hands on one. Chinese companies spend millions of dollars on divisions of engineers whose job it is to do exactly this. In China, what they're doing is not illegal. China is much more lax about patents and intellectual property, and ripping off someone else's device is about as bad as littering. And the Kindle's patent probably only protects it in the US, Amazon probably has not undertaken the lengthy process of obtaining a patent in China. It's an outdated stereotype that these copies will be bad quality, a Chinese company that wants to invest the time and money can often turn out a device equal to or even better than the original, for a lower price.

And the irony is that now the Kindle never will be patented in China. China will only patent a unique product. This is how the company that makes Viagra got burned. Chinese pharmaceutical companies had already pirated the formula and had it on the market before Pfizer decided to expand their market into China, so they could not obtain a patent.

To anyone interested in more information on this subject, I would highly recommend reading "China, Inc." I can personally attest that the things in this book are true.

07-13-2009, 12:59 PM	#24
Stensie4JC Book Diva Posts: 76 Karma: 44 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Nook Color	Comments on China My husband is Chinese and I've spent several years living and working in China, so I'd like to make a couple comments and correct a few inaccuracies. Yes, a qwerty keyboard is used to input Chinese characters. in 1950 in an effort to standardize pronunciation the new Communist government created a system called Pinyin that used "our" alphabet to spell out Chinese words phonetically. The system could not replace the original written system of characters, though, because many words are identical when spelled on Pinyin and the only difference is how each character is written. The vast majority of Chinese words are two characters long, there are only a handful that are one character. There is also an input system that is based on common strokes used in Chinese characters, but it cumbersome and is not very commonly used. The Kindle copy shown here was most likely reverse engineered by someone who got their hands on one. Chinese companies spend millions of dollars on divisions of engineers whose job it is to do exactly this. In China, what they're doing is not illegal. China is much more lax about patents and intellectual property, and ripping off someone else's device is about as bad as littering. And the Kindle's patent probably only protects it in the US, Amazon probably has not undertaken the lengthy process of obtaining a patent in China. It's an outdated stereotype that these copies will be bad quality, a Chinese company that wants to invest the time and money can often turn out a device equal to or even better than the original, for a lower price. And the irony is that now the Kindle never will be patented in China. China will only patent a unique product. This is how the company that makes Viagra got burned. Chinese pharmaceutical companies had already pirated the formula and had it on the market before Pfizer decided to expand their market into China, so they could not obtain a patent. To anyone interested in more information on this subject, I would highly recommend reading "China, Inc." I can personally attest that the things in this book are true.