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Imax Corporation Alleges Intellectual Property Theft in China

Jumbo screen merchant Imax Corporation alleges that a relatively  new competitor operated by the Chinese government is using stolen intellectual property.

Reports the New York Times:

Imax has charged in several courts that the Chinese system relies on technology that was blatantly stolen from its offices in Canada. ...

For Imax, the consequences of the fight over Chinese technologies could be considerable.

Failure to contain their use could stunt Imax’s growth in China, while also poisoning the company’s relations with American studios that use Chinese operations to convert their films to 3-D or large-format. It could also cause problems in the United States if, as expected, Chinese companies eventually deploy their products here as a competitor to Imax.

The Times reports that one possible outcome of ongoing negotiations with the Chinese government would be to allow the Chinese systems with the infringed upon intellectual property to operate in China while restricting the system's importation to the United States.

Intellectual property theft by China is believed to cost companies in the United States more than $300 billion annually.

China and Hollywood have previously come under fire for censoring American film productions released in China and for forcing changes to productions sent around the world. Sony cut several scenes from Men in Black III at the behest of the Chinese government and the villains in the Red Dawn reboot were changed from Chinese to North Korean in order to placate Beijing.