News

China's Phantom iPhone Clone

Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 8:15 AM - by

China isn't known for its respect for intellectual property rights, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that one company is hard at work at bringing a blatant iPhone knock-off to market. Meizu has been working on its miniOne iPhone clone for some time, and may be able to get it in Chinese consumer hands before the end of the year, according to Popular Science.

What sets the miniOne apart from the iPhone is that instead of matching the combination iPod and smart phone feature for feature, Meizu may be attempting to one-up Apple's design. Supposedly, the miniOne will work with any cell carrier, will run more applications, and will cost less.


Meizu's miniOne

How well the miniOne manages to pull that off remains to be seen since Meizu's little handheld hasn't been spotted in the wild yet. So far, only images that bear a striking resemblance to the iPhone have surfaced, and most of the information about the device has come from Web forums.

Apple hasn't made any public statements about the miniOne, making it unclear how the company plans to deal with Meizu's design. CEO Steve Jobs revealed that his company has worked to protect the iPhone with a long list of patents, presumably to defend from knock off products like the miniOne. Defending those patents in China, however, may be easier said than done since the country does little to enforce copyrights, patents, or intellectual property rights.

Apple has used the court systems outside of the United States to defend its products in the past, but so far hasn't attempted to do so in China. Even if the Cupertino-based company does pursue legal action against Meizu, it's likely that nothing will happen until after the product rolls off the assembly line because, for now, the miniOne is only vaporware.

[Thanks to TMO reader gulmatan for the heads up.]

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:43 am

The easiest way to "defend" your patten is to threaten pull all your manufacturing out of China. It's amazing how fast the government in China moves in to "help stomp out piracy" when a major contract is about to leave the country.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1917 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:57 am

Guest wrote:
The easiest way to "defend" your patten is to threaten pull all your manufacturing out of China. It's amazing how fast the government in China moves in to "help stomp out piracy" when a major contract is about to leave the country.

A very good point. Use the corruption against itself.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:46 am

China is getting a bad rap for many good reasons.

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ctopher said:

member since 25 Aug 2006 with 134 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:56 pm

Perhaps Apple didn't seek patent protection in China.

You have to apply for a patent in every country you care about and they may have left the Chinese market to the Chinese. If that's the case, there's no patent infringement. Infringement comes when the knock-off enters a market where there *is* protection.

So selling it in China may not be a problem, but if they try to sell it in the USA, then Apple can go after them.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:52 pm

ctopher wrote:
Perhaps Apple didn't seek patent protection in China.

You have to apply for a patent in every country you care about and they may have left the Chinese market to the Chinese. If that's the case, there's no patent infringement. Infringement comes when the knock-off enters a market where there *is* protection.

So selling it in China may not be a problem, but if they try to sell it in the USA, then Apple can go after them.

Basically China has no patent office, or at least one that does anything. There really is no way to patent something in China.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:58 pm

Anonymous wrote:
ctopher wrote:
Perhaps Apple didn't seek patent protection in China.

You have to apply for a patent in every country you care about and they may have left the Chinese market to the Chinese. If that's the case, there's no patent infringement. Infringement comes when the knock-off enters a market where there *is* protection.

So selling it in China may not be a problem, but if they try to sell it in the USA, then Apple can go after them.

Basically China has no patent office, or at least one that does anything. There really is no way to patent something in China.

China's essentially complete disregard for intellectual property laws has been a major sticking point in trade negotiations between China and the US, EU, etc. I think that was here on TMO that someone said that he could buy an unlocked copy of MS Office in China for less than $10.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:17 pm

In this particular case, it's really a joke that the popular press is acting as Apple's proxy in criticizing China for copying the iPhone. There is a reason why Apple has made no comment whatsoever about any of the many iPhone clones to emerge thus far: it is because Steve Jobs personally stole the designs for the iPhone from an American engineer, who coincidentally happens to be Chinese. Maybe it's justice of a weird sort that the made-in-China iPhone clones are coming to bite back at Apple's ill gotten goods. Another thing, expect the majority of the clones to run Windows Mobile OS's.

Another thing, under the patent law doctrine of inequitable conduct, Apple's iPhone patents can be ruled unenforceable. Then take the prospect that the legitimate patents Steve Jobs stole from will be enforced by an alliance of the clone makers, ie. Meizu, Microsoft, LG, etc. and you get a recipe for the death of the iPhone. That may sound unbelievable at this snapshot in time, but if understand the law, and what is happening, it is quite a realistic scenario.

The reality is that the iPhone is an unlawful product and as such cannot be defended in court against the clone-makers. If they attempt to, the facts that emerge will cause Steve Jobs to face criminal prosecution under the federal RICO laws. Given reports that the engineer Steve Jobs stole from is now working in some unknown secret capacity with Bill Gates, the iPhone's future is dubious. The Apple "fanboys" out there are welcome to attack and ridicule this comment, but remember, for the future, that these words were said.

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Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 3144 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:23 am

Do you actually have one shred of proof for these accusations you have made?

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Aug 24, 2007 10:11 pm

just tell me where to get one!

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:15 am

@Hide

The real iphone Clone GSM phone is out (tri-band for use with T-mobile, at&t, etc). It is the Digitalrise D718i iPhone. The D718i clone is unlocked and has dual sim card holder.

Here is the link:

Digitalrise 718i iPhone Clone

http://www.chinagrabber.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=174

BR

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