IMAX’s intellectual property pickle with China
February 3, 2014 6:53 pm Leave your thoughts
The United States may be considered the world's superpower, but China is not trailing too far behind in many categories. The Chinese's drive to remain competitive against the Americans is clear in multiple work sectors, but in terms of the film industry, a disagreement may hurt American studios, the New York Times reported.
According to the news source, challenging the China Film Group, which is responsible for overseeing the purchases of these large screens and import film licenses is "virtually unthinkable" because it is a $3.6 billion industry—second only to the U.S.
However, IMAX is trying to get its bouts with the Chinese out of the way before the premiere of "RoboCop" because movie theaters plan on reconverting the film to 3D, while it remains in 2D in the States.
Rifts between IMAX and the Chinese go deeper than that, seeing how the Canadian business said the technology on China's movie screens were "blatantly stolen" from IMAX when Gary Tsui was with the company between 1999-2009. Tsui was fired for starting Jiangsu Sunway Digital, a movie screen bidding business offering prices much lower than IMAX's.
"I'm a former [IMAX] employee being scape goated [sic] when the company chooses not to face competitive environment, ever-changing technology, and the dislikes of market monopoly and itself," Tsui told the Times.
IMAX may have its own problems with Tsui for allegedly stealing company secrets, but the problem still stands: does IMAX continue its battle with the China Film Group and risk delay of profit payments, release dates and censorship on other American films?
Startups may find themselves in a huge predicament like this in the future, but because these problems may occur years from the company's start date, it's hard to imagine such. Instead of jumping into the international business industry alone, get the proper corporation liability protection.
Categorised in: International Business Law
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