(Ecns.cn)--The Ministry of Railways (MOR) has rejected a Japanese claim that China violated Japanese intellectual property rights related to high-speed rail technology.
Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said on Thursday that China's high-speed rail technology is much better than that used by Japan's Shinkansen Line, the People's Daily reported.
Wang's remarks came after Japanese companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and the East Japan Railway Co, said they would take action if China files for patents on high-speed trains made using Japanese technology, after Beijing submitted applications for international patents.
China files patent applications for its high speed rail
China has filed 21 patent applications for its high-speed railway technology under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, according to Liu Jun, director of the general affairs office at the ministry's transport bureau.
The applications concern train assembly, hulls and bogies (part of the suspension system), and have been filed in the United States, Brazil, Europe, Russia and Japan, according to Li.
"All the high-speed rail patents that China is applying for abroad have been developed independently, and do not infringe on other countries' high-speed rail patents.
"China will not claim anything that does not belong to it. However, it will not give up the right to patent its innovations because of irresponsible remarks by others," he said.
Japanese companies threaten to take action
Tadaharu Ohashi, chairman of the Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, said last week it will take action if China files for patents on high-speed trains made using Japanese technology.
"We will take some kind of action if this violates contracts signed between Japan and China," Ohashi said at a regular news conference as head of the Kobe Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Moreover, East Japan Railway, another company which has exported technology to China, said it will also monitor Chinese patent filings.
It will "take proper actions with Kawasaki Heavy" if the moves infringe on intellectual property rights, said JR East Executive Vice President Tetsuro Tomita Wednesday, even though he admitted that "We still don't know for what kind of technology China has filed patent applications."
"We should not act in haste," Tadaharu Ohashi said, adding that the details are still unclear.
