What if the Japanese discovered the Liaohe oil field?

Please also note that Howard Hughes Sr. patents do not apply to Manchukuo as it never signed the Paris Convention of 1883 or the subsequent treaties regarding patents. And China as a whole only signed in 1984 where as for Japan it is specifically noted that Japan's territory includes Korea, Taiwan and South Sakhalin, but no mention of Manchuria.

And even under the Paris convention you need to file your patent with each country. The P.C. just makes it possible for foreigners to file.

So Japanese companies or at least their Manchurian subsidiaries could use Howard's drill bits without direct legal consequences.
 
Please also note that Howard Hughes Sr. patents do not apply to Manchukuo as it never signed the Paris Convention of 1883 or the subsequent treaties regarding patents. And China as a whole only signed in 1984 where as for Japan it is specifically noted that Japan's territory includes Korea, Taiwan and South Sakhalin, but no mention of Manchuria.

And even under the Paris convention you need to file your patent with each country. The P.C. just makes it possible for foreigners to file.

So Japanese companies or at least their Manchurian subsidiaries could use Howard's drill bits without direct legal consequences.

Problem was that Hughes Tool kept near impossible level of security on those cutters.

The Patents didn't tell the whole story on how to make them.

You think nobody else tried to copy them? They did, but didn'y have the process, so were nowhere as long lasting.

Think on this, the USSR, who copied the Atomic Bomb, couldn't replicate them. And they tried really hard. You would too, in Stalin's USSR

Hughes Tool was so very profitable because they would only lease the cutters, and maintain them, and hammer anyone who tried any shenanigans
in the courtroom, and by blackballing them, with notice given to other drillers if they would suffer the same if gave any assistance to the other party.

So everyone played his game, and paid.

That's how he got to be the richest man in the world, till the patents ran out. By that time, HH had other interests than just Oil
 
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