From my 9 years working in Microsoft China, I think Lenovo, Microsoft, and China all have a very good relationship. I’d be very surprised if Microsoft took action against Lenovo, I would be astounded if they went anywhere near where the Chinese government would admonish them.
I wouldn't be surprised here if Microsoft was even intentionally lending the IP. Microsoft doesn't want to be the sole hardware vendor in a category, so encouraging HoloLens clones is probably somewhere on their explicit agenda.
I don't think Microsoft is that dumb. They have business in China that they want to protect. They will certainly have China advisors available to their board to prevent such miscalculations. And that is assuming Microsoft considers Lenovo's product as an infringement (they might not); Lenovo may have paid for whatever IP they have used - or they may have found creative ways to avoid it.
It is sad that all the comments are basically implying that MS, or any company by extension, should just accept IP infringement by Chinese rather than take action against it.
How the hell did we get in this mess....
Why don't companies understand that Chinese market is a one off access. The moment some Chinese company copies IP, that access is gone. It's a very myopic strategy to accept such losses as a trade-off for doing business in China.
Maybe, but China makes up a very tiny fraction of msft revenue. The only reason they would give in to threats from China would be if they believe that in the future the piracy problem in China will go away for them.
1) MS will sue Lenovo.
2) China will threaten MS with consequences including no access to China market.
3) MS will withdraw the lawsuit and lick its wounds.