The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a 64-bit microprocessor, the Godson-2, to which an aspersion has been cast is "an imitation" of patented chip architecture technology from the U.S. company MIPS Technologies.

Hu Weiwu, who, as principal investigator for the Godson program at the CAS Institute of Computing Technology, is an unbiased source, said, "It's totally inappropriate to charge us with intellectual property infringement on the ground that our chips are 95% compatible with MIPS products. In general concepts, many well-known brands have 95% similarity. But at the micro-architecture level, Godson-2 is a totally different story from the MIPS chip."

"We built two different apartments, but with two bedrooms each facing the same direction. Could anyone conclude that one copied another?" Hu analogized. Certainly anyone with a sense of analogy would grasp the desperate attempt at veracity from Hu's non sequitur.

"We didn't copy their repertoire and Godson-2 is run in a different way," Hu said. Well, five percent different way.

Hu admitted that the Godson-2 had been marketed as "MIPS-like". "We're now realizing that it was not wise to do so," but did not elaborate further.

No mention was made of the hundreds of other patents applicable to microprocessor chips, some of which are likely less than 95% compatible with the Godson-2 - very different apartments with very different bedrooms, no doubt.

Li Guojie, the head of the CAS institute, observed, "We always keep high alert on our intellectual property strategy and try to evade any traps laid by foreign companies." Oh, those wily foreign company intellectual property traps. Be on the lookout.