Publication records

The number of patent applications filed at the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office SIPO grew tremendously over the last decades and the SIPO has become the world's third largest patent office by 2009. In this paper, we provide an overview of the institutional background of patent examination in China. Moreover, we empirically analyze the determinants of the grant lags applicants have to expect at the SIPO. The multivariate duration analysis is based on the population of 443,533 patent applications filed at the SIPO between 1990 and 2002. The average grant lag is 4.71 years with considerable variation across 30 different technology areas. Interestingly, we find that Chinese applicants are able to achieve faster patent grants than their non-Chinese counterparts (even after controlling for various other determinants of grant lags). This might be an indication of a differential treatment of Chinese applicants which would be in violation of Art. 3 (National Treatment) and Art. 4 (Most-favored Nation Treatment) of TRIPS that has been signed by China in 2001.

The case describes the joint venture negotiation between Mr. Hartmut Holgebretsen, vice president of sales at Euroland Motors, in the English-speaking country of Norland, and Mr. Wu Chang, deputy president at Munchao Motors Import (MMI) in Munchao. It serves as information for a negotiation exercise. The negotiation takes place after the agreement on an initial letter of intent. However, MMI wanted to reopen a few issues before signing a final contract on the import of gas and diesel engines. The case contains “General information” that is available to both negotiation parties. In separate case supplements, Supplement (A): “Negotiation brief for Euroland Motors” and Supplement (B): “Negotiation brief for MMI,” the two parties receive confidential information that is exclusively for them and should not be made available to the other party before the negotiation exercise. The case combines three levels of discussion: a) business issues, b) cross-cultural issues, and c) ethical issues (especially “dirty” negotiation tricks, intellectual property rights, confidential information, and corruption).

The case seems to be most effective and popular when used in executive education with culturally diverse groups of managers who have already gained personal experiences in intercultural negotiations. The case can be used to discuss/introduce topics such as: business ethics in general, business ethics in intercultural/cross-cultural negotiation in particular, mechanics of negotiation, increasing the pie in a negotiation, intercultural/cross-cultural management, and B2B sales of technological products.

Managerwissen für Nicht-BWLer. Praxisnah vermitteln die Autoren die zentralen BWL-Kenntnisse: von den Instrumenten der strategischen, operativen und finanzwirtschaftlichen Unternehmenssteuerung über die Rechnungslegung bis zur Ausrichtung auf dem Markt und im Wettbewerb. Neu in der 4. Auflage: Beitrag zu Führung in Veränderungsprozessen. Übungen überprüfen das Wissen. Aktuell und leicht verständlich.