noisevault on Nostr: I learned about this when I bought an Asian scooter. There were many stores here in ...

I learned about this when I bought an Asian scooter. There were many stores here in Dallas that sold Chinese scooters. All of them were clones of the Honda design GY6 engine. In the US one company would make these things... in this case Honda, since they owned the design. But in China a scooter factory could appear in Shenzhen... make thousands of engines based on the honda design from interchangeable parts made by so many other factories... and then after 6 months? Poof. Gone forever.

I thought about this a lot. The western model of patents and "intellectual property" is good in many ways. But on the other hand (an English idiom that means 'in contrast to')... in China ideas flow freely and everyone is a pirate. So getting parts for a Chinese GY6? hard and easy... Hard because there is not "original manufacturer" in many cases. But easy because a zillion ohter factories make a part that is 93% compatible. ;)

But that was years ago. I think the next shock for the west will be Chinese cars...

I hope you do not mind the long response.