US must handle IPR theft cases objectively

On landing at Los Angeles airport on May 15, Zhang Hao, a professor at Tianjin University, was arrested by US police for suspected economic espionage. Five of his colleagues and some of his students, believed to be in China now, too have been indicted by the US for "stealing sensitive American technology" for smartphones and potential military applications.

Zhang and some of the other accused studied and worked in the US for a few years, during which they might have developed some acoustic technologies for mobile phones for their companies. They returned to China in 2009 and continued working in the same field - research and development in and manufacturing of semiconductor chips - which made them vulnerable to legal issues.

The possible problems they faced while doing so included: Would the technologies they developed in the US be the properties of their previous employers? Did they bring to China other technologies that were solely owned by the US entities? If yes, did they settle with the US entities how to use them without legal complications? Would the new technologies they developed after returning to China be subject to legal limitations which they might still be under because of their R&D work in the US?