Hisense Sharp Sharp patent war between the two giants intensified with the two courtesy, former allies have officially become enemies.
Hisense fought back after Sharp filed a series of lawsuits against Hisense Recently, Hisense formally filed lawsuits against courts in Beijing and Qingdao, accusing Sharp of up to a dozen of TV products sold in China that infringed Hisense's patent At present, Beijing and Qingdao intellectual property courts have accepted the case.
The industry believes: 'If Hisense wins the case, the Sharp color TV will be troubled in the Chinese market; and if Sharp wins the case, Hisense's dominant position in the Chinese market will be seriously challenged while the global market, in the field of color TV has Hisense and Sharp is the third strongest position, this is a status quarrel.
Compete for the North American market
As the two giants go to court, Hisense's battle with Sharp intensified.
On June 9 this year, Sharp filed a lawsuit against Hisense in California courts in the United States, demanding that Hisense cease using the Sharp TV brand and claim at least US $ 100 million in compensation. Two months later, Sharp further requested the ITC investigate Hisense Group Whether there is a patent infringement, and ITC reserves the right to ban the import of those products that damage U.S. patents.
For Sharp's actions, Hisense responded: 'This is a good news.'
Recently, Hisense hit a counter-attack boxing, Hisense Electric formally filed a lawsuit against courts in Beijing and Qingdao accused Sharp of as many as a dozen of TV products sold in China infringed Hisense invention patents, allegedly infringing products in China more than thirty Provinces and cities for sale.
Hisense claims it has a patent called "A Backlight Control Method, Device and LED LCD TV." Sharp and its affiliates, such as LCD-60SU860A, manufactured and offered for sale and without the permission of Hisense, Paragraph LCD TVs, fall into the scope of protection of the patent involved, constitutes the infringement of patent rights as provided in the first paragraph of Article 11 of the Patent Law.Hisense in the petition requires the court to order Sharp to immediately stop infringement of its patent rights, stop Manufacture, sell, promise to sell infringing products, and destroy infringing products.
At present, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has accepted the case of a dispute over the patent infringement of the Sea by Sharp.
Liang Zhenpeng, an industrial economic observer, said: "Hisense wanted Sharp to file a lawsuit against it, and the lawsuits of both parties will continue for some time."
Although the two color TV giants hilarious, however, two years ago, both are allies, and sympathetic.
In July 2015, Hisense acquired the entire equity and assets of Sharp Mexico Plant and acquired the brand rights and all channel resources of Sharp TV Americas, and the information provided by Hisense shows that under the agreement, Hisense will host Sharp North American brand in January 2016 From 6 to January 5, 2021.
However, with the change of strategy of Hon Hai Group after its entry into Sharp, Hisense ceased using its brand due to Hisense's sale of low-quality products and at least paid 100 million U.S. dollars, and Hisense did not agree with this, saying that Continue to produce and sell Sharp brand TV products in North America.Then, the two sides sue each other to court, Hisense is directed at Sharp infringement of its patent rights, while the brand battle between the two evolved into a litigation battle.
Appliance industry experts Liu Buchen said: 'Earlier Sharp sued Hisense in the United States, requiring the early resumption of Sharp's brand licensing in North America, which makes Hisense angry, that Sharp breach of contract.In fact, Hisense has deep consideration: if you give up Sharp authorization , Hisense color TV sales in North America will plummet.
It is reported that Hisense color TV sales in North America (mainly the United States), more than 70% from Sharp brand support, once the early return of brand authorization, Hisense TV sales in overseas markets will drop sharply, which is Hisense do not want to see .
Hisense and Sharp are targeting the third position of the global color TV, so put each other down, the possibility of becoming third place on the larger .This is also the two giants home appliances giant each other as enemies, fight each other The important reason. 'Liu Buchen think.
Hisense's crisis and machine
Since the second half of last year, affected by the rising prices of raw materials such as upstream panels, the black-chip enterprises in China, including Hisense, have all suffered crises and the performance declined in varying degrees.
Hisense Electric released three quarterly reports, the company operating income of 23.746 billion yuan, an increase of 7.57%; but attributable to shareholders of listed companies net profit of only 600 million yuan, a substantial decline of 47%. Hisense's performance was also fluctuations in raw material prices Dragged down.Hisense also said that it will adjust to adjust as soon as possible to restore performance growth.
It is noteworthy that the first half of this year, the same color TV exports decline.According to the statistics of the customs department, from January to May this year, China's color TV exports 26.62 million units, down 6.1% .For the export sales accounted for a larger occupation Proportion of color TV manufacturers, in the domestic market has been saturated under the circumstances, to ensure and enhance the growth of overseas market share, is particularly important.Hisix naturally will not give Sharp the right to regain the right to operate in North America market.
Sharp, which has been huddling the Chinese market, also significantly strengthened its presence in the Chinese market in the second half of 2016 and even became one of the very few brands in the TV market that achieved substantial growth.
Sharp's performance in the Chinese market, where growth comes from? Of course, squeeze existing brand space, including the dominant position in the domestic market Hisense.Hisense squeezed due to Sharp lost some market share, or even profit Has also been affected from the current situation, Sharp ranks among the top three Chinese color TV is very high possibility.Therefore, how to curb the growth momentum of Sharp has become one of the issues of thinking of Chinese brands such as Hisense, Liu Buchen told reporters.