Thetruthaboutcars.com At the Heart Of Brewing Intellectual Property Scandal In China
This chair will soon be vacant
Remind me to send a bill to Volkswagen for propaganda services rendered. Maybe I can use my old Lieferantennummer. (Supplier’s Number.) Otherwise, TTAC and your humble BS would be ripped off left and right.
So on Friday, I write: “Why is Winfried Vahland still here? Wasn’t he supposed to leave his post as head honcho of Volkswagen China and move to Mladá Boleslav in the Czech Republic to head-up Skoda?” I receive no answer. Then yesterday, Bloomberg reports: “Vahland, who has overseen the China division for five years, is leaving in the second half to return to the Czech Skoda unit and replace Reinhard Jung.” And here I thought that was common knowledge. Bloomberg says that they still haven’t found someone for Vahland’s vacancy. Says Bloomberg: “Former Continental AG Chief Executive Officer Karl-Thomas Neumann, hired by VW last November, is a candidate to replace Vahland, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this month.”
It gets even better (or worse.) Volkswagen’s CEO Winterkorn steals my lines! Didn’t I write yesterday morning “China is Volkswagen’s new home market: They will easily sell more cars in China this year than in Germany?”
That very day, Bloomberg reports in the evening from Beijing:
“There’s a seemingly endless lust for mobility in China and VW is right at the center of this astonishing development,” Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said at the Beijing Auto Show. “China has become a second home market for VW.”
There just is no respect anymore for intellectual property in China …
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
Comments
Join the conversation
But you get a great iPad clone for $300...
I remember walking the streets of Shenzhen, being approached by a stranger, and asked if I wanted to buy a copy of Windows Vista (it was pretty new then). I examined the package which seemed authentic right down to the hologram on the box--not a bad knock-off, and asked, "how much?" The guy said 35 yuan. I thought a few seconds; it occurred to me that on a good day a copy of Windows might even be worth a couple of dollars. But the sky was overcast with an odd yellow haze and I was having some minor gastro-intestinal discomfort from eating something earlier for lunch, something I had no idea what. So I shook my head but asked instead whether he had a copy of Red Flag Linux to sell? He muttered "laowai" under his breath and walked away. But I didn't mind, since I knew that the real Devil was much taller and more handsome than me.
"Laowai" means old foreigner. You're confusing it with "gwailo" which means literally "white ghost" but also "foreign devil" without the negative connotation like "yangguizi" had.