试听47秒热点英语新闻6：梦碎知识产权金融，百亿独角兽如何爆雷

InDepth: Self-Styled ‘Godfather of Patents’ Rises, Falls on China’s InnovationObsession

梦碎知识产权金融，百亿独角兽如何爆雷

slick
adj. 顺利而有效的；圆滑的；光滑的
(of an action or thing) done or operating in an impressively smooth, efficient, and apparently effortless way; (of skin or hair) smooth and glossy.

slickly adv. 平滑地；灵巧地
slicker n. 骗子；刮刀

词组
oil slick 水面浮油
city slicker （时髦世故的）城市人

例句
The roads were slick with rain.  
下雨路滑。

It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.
我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。


spin off
拆分，剥离
(of a parent company) turn a subsidiary into a new and separate company.

例句
The move fuelled speculation that UBS would sell or spin off its investment bank.
此举引发猜测，瑞银或将出售或剥离其投资银行。

The German conglomerate will spin off its profitable elevator-technology business, car-parts unit and factory-construction assets into a separately listed company.
这家德国企业集团将剥离其盈利的电梯技术业务、汽车零部件业务和工厂建设业务，成立一家独立上市公司。


proxy
n. 代表权；代理人
the agency, function, or office of a deputy who acts as a substitute for another

词组
proxy service 代理服务
proxy war 代理之争

例句
You can vote either in person or by proxy.   
你可以亲自投票或请人代理。

Your proxy will need to sign the form on your behalf.  
你的代理人须代表你在表格上签字。

Huiju is as a patent specialist that was one of China’s newest unicorns as little as a year ago with a market value of more than 10 billion yuan. But now Huiju has come under a cloud, suspected of illegal public fundraising as it enters a new stage of simply trying to survive, even as its slick website continues to offer a wide range of products and services.

And the service I want to focus on, and which it is most famous for, is helping companies to file patents. It would often target small and mid-sized companies telling them how to file for patents and take advantage of government subsidies worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Hold on – the Chinese government gives you money for filing a patent.

It is not as quite forward as that — but in practical terms, patents have become one of the government’s easiest ways to measure success in innovation. And so as China wants to move up the production value chain it actively wants to encourage that innovation. So companies have to jump through a few hoops but there is government money available if you file patents. And Huiju basically helped companies jump through those hoops.

And I’m guessing this is where the story gets its wider significance.

Precisely! Huiju is now charged with basically gaming the system to spin off one innovation into several patents, finding ways to make patents look more valuable than they really are generally undermining the whole system. Not to mention taking advantage of a government system which is meant to encourage innovation.

The whole story brings into sharp focus of how we should judge China’s high number of patent filings, whether the system is up to the task and begs the question of how we should judge China’s level of innovation — or any other country’s for that matter.

Patents are after all just a proxy for innovation — especially if they are not that useful or commercially viable.