On July 4, Microchip Technology Inc. filed a lawsuit against Shanghai Haier Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd. The American company alleges that the Chinese company, a unit of Chinese home appliance maker Haier Group, copied its microcode embedded in its PIC16CXXX microcontrollers and the data manual describing how to use the microcontroller.

 

A senior manager with the Haier Group says that now so-called intellectual propriety protection is a tool for multinational companies to lambaste others in order to retain their technology monopoly. This tool is more lethal than trade barriers and 60 percent of Chinese export companies are suffering this kind of technical barrier set by foreign countries, the manager reveals.

Please read the full story in Chinese (http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000004/20070705/000000072099.shtml).

(China.org.cn July 5, 2007)