The Hoverboard Life

I listened to a podcast by planet money about the hoverboard that everybody seems to be obsessed with. This is the little two wheeled segway scooter thing that has recently hit the streets. The podcast was about how it was very hard to track down the inventor of the hoverboard because nobody could find a website or a company that made them. To buy a hoverboard in America you either have to go through an American company who act as the middle man between you and China. Or go deep into the internet and order (for a lot less) through a sketchy Chinese website. The podcast basically explained how the system in China is different from the system here. In China there are many factories that will tackle an idea and all start producing the same thing while sharing the design and blueprint of the products. In America an inventor will generally come up with an idea about a certain product and then patent that product and then sue anybody who manufacturers a copy of the idea that they came up with. I thought that it was very interesting how the podcast showed these differences and educated people about them through a popular product like a hoverboard.