[Commons-Law] Wikileaks: The "Frenchies" Steal More IPR From Germany Than China/Russia

[Pranesh Prakash]

http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3972436.ece

[snip]
THE "FRENCHIES" STEAL MORE IPR FROM GERMANY THAN CHINA/RUSSIA
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8. (C) Smutny said his primary reason for leaving Tesat-SpaceCom was 
that he was sick of developing world class German-origin satellite 
technology only to have the "Frenchies" swoop in via their influence in 
EADS and siphon German intellectual property. Smutny frankly said 
"France is the evil empire stealing technology and Germany knows this", 
but Germany´s decentralized government is not willing to do much about 
it. Going on at length of his despise of the French, Smutny said French 
IPR espionage is so bad that the total damage done to the German economy 
is greater the that inflicted by China or Russia. When asked about the 
possibility of EADS acquiring OHB-System Smutny responded that OHB is a 
special case and the German government is particularly careful to ensure 
that OHB stays within Germany´s sphere for German military/intelligence 
reasons.

CUT THE CHINESE A LITTLE SLACK ON ITAR
--------------------------------------
9. (S) While Smutny spent a great deal of time accusing the French of 
economic espionage, he took a much softer view on China´s espionage 
activities. Smutny said the International Traffic in Arms Regulations 
(ITAR), though a good apparatus for preventing illicit technology 
transfers and something that he personally supports, is severely hurting 
US business opportunities in China. Smutny opined the US should relax 
ITAR restriction on the exports of goods with black box technologies, 
such as that found in integrated circuits. He reasoned the risk of 
technology transfer is very low because these devises can not be easily 
reverse engineered. (COMMENT: Per ref C, Chinese entities have attempted 
to procure German satellite technology from Tesat-SpaceCom in the past 
under the guise of the Galileo program.  END COMMENT)

[/snip]

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283

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