【英语中国】知识产权问题成中国技术输出拦路虎

California wants to tap Chinese companies to do everything from set up offices and factories to supply public busses and even maybe help build a high-speed train line. In an era of anemic budgets and eroding tax revenues, luring Chinese companies to set up shop is an increasingly attractive option for a number of state and local governments in the U.S.

There's just one problem: It's not clear the technologies the Chinese want to bring over are entirely legal.

That is a pressing issue, for example, for Los Angeles, which is trying to woo Chinese businesses to the city after it was stung recently by the departures of Northrop Grumman Corp (to Virginia) and Hilton Worldwide Inc (to Washington, D.C.). To fill the void left by those losses, the city has, among other efforts, been going after cash-rich companies from China that are looking increasingly to venture out in the global marketplace.

Los Angeles' first deputy mayor â ' former Wall Street executive Austin Beutner â ' earlier this year persuaded Chinese battery and auto maker BYD Co. to open its first U.S. headquarters in the city. As part of that effort, the city agreed to stock part of its municipal vehicle fleet with BYD's all-electric battery car, powered by generally still-unproven advanced lithium-ion battery technology, as a way to help the Shenzhen-based company conduct field tests. The city is also in talks to buy all-electric buses from BYD, which might eventually set up a factory to supply those e-buses to the city.

While all this is great for BYD and Mr. Beutner, who is hoping BYD's decision to site its U.S. head office in southern California will become a catalyst for other Chinese companies to do the same, what if BYD doesn't exactly own all the rights to the technology it's selling?

That question became more pressing when an individual close to BYD told The Wall Street Journal this month that a delay in the planned launch of BYD's all-electric e6 sedan this year was in part over questions of intellectual property infringement involving the lithium powder BYD uses in its car batteries.

BYD has denied there is any intellectual property problem with its battery technology, and according to the same knowledgeable individual who flagged the problem, BYD appears to have resolved it by finding a legal way to produce or procure the lithium powder. Still, questions over the legality of the company's technology are bound to persist as the company begins test-marketingthe e6 car next year.

'As a city, we are trying to encourage as many businesses as possible to establish operations (in Los Angeles),' Mr. Beutner said in an email message when asked about BYD's possible intellectual property problem. 'We expect all of them will comply with all applicable laws.'

California's state government has similar concerns. The state is interested in getting Chinese help to build a planned high-speed railway, but may run into opposition from foreign companies such as Germany's Siemens AG and Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. who licensed their high-speed train technology to China with the understanding it would be used exclusively within China. Chinese companies can't use the technology in products they intend to export, these companies contend, citing technology-transfer contracts they signed with China's Ministry of Railways.

China has insisted, however, that the technology it now uses for high-speed trains it produces are its own and the result of its 'self innovation,' having 're-innovated' the foreign technologies it acquired from Siemens, Kawasaki and others.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office has declined to comment about the state's interest in Chinese trains, but Jeffrey Barker, a deputy executive director of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, has told The Wall Street Journal that California is still years away from taking bids from manufacturers. When it does, he says, the 'process will certainly ensure that any technology transferred to the United States is done so properly, in accordance with all intellectual-property laws.'

美国加利福尼亚州希望借助中国公司做各种各样的事情：从开设办公地点和工厂，到供应公交车，甚至有可能参与修建一条高速铁路线，不一而足。在预算贫血、税收减少的年代，吸引中国公司前来经营已经成为美国一些州政府和地方政府面前一个越来越诱人的选项。

但有一个问题：不知道中国人希望带过来的技术是否完全合法。

BYD Auto比亚迪K9全电动客车这是一个必须解决的问题，对于洛杉矶来说也不例外。洛杉矶最近承受了诺斯洛普格拉曼公司(Northrop Grumman Corp)和希尔顿公司(Hilton Worldwide Inc)离去之痛（前一家前往弗吉尼亚，后一家前往华盛顿特区），目前正想吸引中国公司前来。为填补两家公司离开后留下的空白，洛杉矶的多种措施中，有一条就是寻找那些现金充足、越来越想在国际市场打拼的中国公司。

曾任华尔街高管的洛杉矶第一副市长布特纳(Austin Beutner)今年前段时间劝说中国电池与汽车生产商比亚迪(BYD Co.)在该市开设第一个美国总部。为让比亚迪落户，洛杉矶同意比亚迪的全电动汽车加入该市公共交通工具队伍，以帮助总部位于深圳的比亚迪开展实地试验，因为这种汽车采用的先进锂离子电池技术普遍还没有得到检验。洛杉矶也在谈判从比亚迪购买全电动客车事宜，最终比亚迪有可能专门开设一家工厂向洛杉矶供应这些电动客车。

这一切对比亚迪有利，也对布特纳有利，他指望比亚迪在南加州设立美国总部的决定将会鼓励其他中国公司也在这里设立总部。但是，万一比亚迪出售的技术不完全归它所有，那该怎么办？

一位接近比亚迪的人士本月对《华尔街日报》说，比亚迪今年推出全电动e6轿车的计划推迟，部分原因就是比亚迪汽车电池所用锂粉涉嫌侵犯知识产权。这时候，上面这个问题就显得更为迫切。

比亚迪曾否认其电池技术存在任何知识产权问题，而据上述指出这一问题的知情人士说，它似乎已经找到一条生产或购买这种锂粉的合法途径，解决了侵权嫌疑。但在明年开始试销e6轿车的时候，有关比亚迪技术合法性的疑问肯定还会存在。

被问到比亚迪可能存在的知识产权问题时，布特纳发来电子邮件说，作为一座城市，我们力图鼓励尽量多的企业前来设立营业机构，我们希望它们都会遵守全部可适用法律。

加州州政府也有类似担心。该州有意在中国公司参与下按计划修建一条高速铁路，但有可能遭到德国西门子(Siemens AG)和日本川崎重工(Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.)等外国公司的反对，因为它们授权中国使用其高铁技术的前提是只在中国国内使用。这些公司援引同中国铁道部签署的技术转移协议说，中国公司不能在打算用于出口的产品中使用这些技术。

但中国方面坚持说，目前它用于高速列车的技术是自有的，是“自主创新”的结果，对它从西门子、川崎重工等公司购买的外国技术进行了“再创新”。

加州州长施瓦辛格的办公室拒绝评论该州对中国高铁的兴趣，但加州高铁局(California High-Speed Rail Authority)常务副主任巴克(Jeffrey Barker)曾对《华尔街日报》说，加州接受生产商投标仍有数年之遥。他说，招标时，其程序肯定会确保转移到美国的任何技术都是合理转移的，符合所有知识产权法律。