China RoHS may threaten IP

China’s version of the RoHS directive developed by the European Union (EU) may jeopardize intellectual property warns Robin Gray, executive director of the National Electronic Distributors Association. Gray notes that unlike the EU’s directive, China’s laws call for compliance that is verified by testing done in accredited Chinese laboratories.

According to an article on Push Back (rohsusa.com), a site dedicated to challenging the science behind RoHS laws, Gray points to China’s inspection process as a means to examine the finest details about products. “Any intellectual property, with respect to alloys or chemical content, is going to be documented by these labs.

Gray notes that merchants in China already had a reputation for nabbing North American intellectual property for the purpose of counterfeiting component and other products. He is now concerned that China’s RoHS laws will put legitimate product in the hands of people who have not demonstrated the ability to protect intellectual property.

Original text is here