China calls for a struggle for technological supremacy in the field of patents, as the conflict has become most intense between it and the United States, and it has also announced its entry into a patent war for cryptocurrencies.
Digital expert Vinson Laughlin and economist Christian Saint-Etienne said in an opinion piece published in the French newspaper Le Monde that the battles will break out between the countries of the world, and will focus on issuing and controlling the digital currency.
"In fact, China does not hesitate to declare its goal, especially as it wants to break the monopoly of the dollar, which will be the key to the internationalization of the Chinese yuan," the two writers added, noting that Beijing has revealed its weapons, a group of 130 patents covering the entire chain of cryptocurrency production, issuance and circulation.
The two writers pointed out that China is accused of stealing industrial property belonging to the United States worth about 600 billion dollars, (about 515 billion euros) annually.
Therefore, Beijing seeks to prove its creativity and weaken the dollar by blocking its digital version.
After imposing sanctions on technology companies ZTE and Huawei, China wants to strike back by punishing Western companies that impinge on their patents.
The authors emphasized that China threatens to overturn the global economy in conjunction with the outbreak of the first revolutions of Bitcoin, the encrypted digital currency Libra, and virtual banks that operate exclusively on the Internet, abandoning traditional financial branch networks.
The strategy of phishing - which is a controversial practice - centers on hoarding patents and threatening operators to ban them in order to obtain adequate compensation, according to the authors.
A new war on the horizon to dominate the world of digital currencies (Reuters)
The patent war
The two writers emphasized that China became the first patent applicant in 2019. Currently, the balance of power is in favor of President Xi Jinping, whose country holds about 1,100 patents, compared to 600 in the United States.
It is worth noting that patent wars are based on counterattacks, so there is no doubt that these disputes will affect AI.
We must remember the destructive power of the patent war between the duo, "Apple" and "Samsung-Google", when hundreds of global companies swept through the wave of unrest and prevented the sale of a Galaxy phone in certain regions.
Nortel tried to obtain approximately $ 1 million per patent, and groups such as Motorola switched owners to obtain patents.
The creative potential of France
In this context, France adopts a mixed position.
On the negative side, Paris suffers from a serious deficit in patent filings, as researchers prefer to publish their work rather than protect it, according to the French report, Le Monde.
In addition, SMEs deposit half of what their German counterparts deposit, and startups ignore patents on the grounds that they appear expensive, complex and untenable.
For its part, the National Institute of Intellectual Property - which prioritizes its interests over the interests of inventors - seeks to inform everyone that the programs and innovations in use are better protected in the United States.
From a positive point of view, the authors add that France still has a creativity capacity recognized as unique in the world.
It is also at the origin of the early vision of an intellectual property-based "knowledge economy", although its implementation in Europe ended with the failure of the Lisbon Strategy adopted by Europe in March 2000.
The Chinese central bank announced last October that it had launched a trial version of its digital yuan currency (Getty Images)
What should we do?
In the long term, it is important to develop patent policy with the ambition of innovation policy, as well as to rally around the culture of anti-patenting, as Google and China have done.
Google was founded on the "open source" program, yet today it joined Apple in the list of the top 10 American inventors, while China has become the world leader in patents.
In the short term, it will be necessary to purchase as many international "Internet of money" patents as possible before the start of auctions, in addition to financing 100% of patent costs and giving priority to protecting innovations in use, which have a greater strategic value against Internet giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
In addition, it is necessary to pay a bonus of 5 thousand euros to the inventors, and a guarantee of a buyback of 200 thousand euros for all future patents in strategic sectors, including those filed abroad.
Moreover, the authors argue that a European patent fund should be created, with the aim of supporting Europe's technological, economic and monetary policy, and inventing copyright for the internet giants instead of the taxes of the domestic internet giants.
China's new position represents a final threat to technological superiority. It is also considered an opportunity to enhance the value of research results, innovation, knowledge and the great asset of France in terms of its ability to innovate, by increasing patent prices.
It is noteworthy that the Chinese Central Bank had announced last October that it had launched a trial version of its digital currency, the "digital yuan", in a move that some consider the country's first public test of the digital payment system for the yuan.
In the wake of this experience, Russia's central bank said last month that it was considering issuing a digital ruble alongside the monetary ruble, to facilitate individual and corporate payments.
These two steps came at a time when central banks around the world were racing to issue their digital currencies and modernize payment systems, as well as to ward off potential competition from cryptocurrencies issued by private parties such as Bitcoin and Facebook.