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Comment by neves | Hacker News Reader

Would this break the New World Order?

This is really interesting, maybe this will set a precedent for the creation of tech companies in the developing world. The Developed World have a clear plan: they will own all the "intellectual property" and use the cheap work in developing countries. It is not a problem if the same company produces all brands of printers. If it starts to sell a print itself, it will be sued to death.

The world is completely ordered: high value jobs for the rich, low value for the poor. We don't need brute force imperialism anymore.

If Xiaomi builds a rift in this structure, it may pave a way for other companies/countries around the world.

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Wait, how is this worse than developing country steals IP for domestic market, can't sell abroad in countries where IP matters? China can and does appropriate IP as needed, this is basically xiaomi's modus operandi. It stops working when developing country company wants to make money in developed market where IP is owned, which I guess is what they want with the patent portfolio.

China in general has said "we don't care" about IP rights, it is only changing now because (a) they are beginning to have their own IP to protect, (b) it is a race to the bottom between local companies when NO IP is protected, and (c) you will get sued to death on products sold in developed markets that are questionable in IP usage.

High value jobs for the rich, low value jobs for the poor. Sounds like China, the USA, and the rest of the world. Do not treat China as one homogenous pile of poor workers.

> China in general has said "we don't care" about IP rights, it is only changing now because (a) they are beginning to have their own IP to protect, (b) it is a race to the bottom between local companies when NO IP is protected, and (c) you will get sued to death on products sold in developed markets that are questionable in IP usage.

Or is China now caring about IP because they have seen that it's more profitable to the innovator rather than after-the-fact-copycat.

The bigger question is whether they can become the innovator. In some instances, they have indicated they might but overall I'm not sold that they can.

Actually, copying other IP has been seen as low hanging fruit, as it was for many other economies at that stage of development (Japan post WW2, America in the late 1800s as the industrial revolution was starting in the UK). Chinese VCs preferred "copy successful ideas from west" ideas because they were much lower risk for their capital.

It is just that the low hanging fruits are now almost all picked. Hopefully they are reaching their Walkman moment.

> It is just that the low hanging fruits are now almost all picked.

If you're copying, then there is never an end to the low hanging fruit. Never.

> Hopefully they are reaching their Walkman moment.

To reach a Walkman moment they first have to invent a Walkman. Hope is not a strategy.

No, eventually the low hanging fruit runs out as you catch up with others and copying has diminishing, as well as negative, returns. You can't develop and secure your own IP as long as you are stealing others.

> To reach a Walkman moment they first have to invent a Walkman. Hope is not a strategy.

I'm talking about my own hopes here. And ya, they would have to invent a "Walkman." It hasn't happened yet, none of Xiaomi's products so far are original in anyway.

As a resident of developing world, this is depressing.

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