After experiencing price war, technical warfare and marketing war, this year's home appliances industry pushed the patent war to the peak. Industry believes that after decades of development, the tentacles of China's home appliance industry have extended to all corners of the world, including Intellectual property rights, including patents, have become a 'can not be turned around'.
Appliance industry patent war everywhere
Recently, Hisense Electric Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hisense Electric), a listed company of Hisense Group, simultaneously filed a lawsuit in Beijing and Qingdao alleging that Sharp Business (China) Co., Ltd., Sharp Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Technology (Shenzhen) Limited (hereinafter referred to as Sharp) to sell more than a dozen TV products in China violated its invention patents, pursuant to which Hisense Electric asked the court to order Sharp to stop infringement immediately and compensate 10 million yuan.
It is understood that the Hisense Electric litigation involved is 'a backlight control method, device and LED TV' and 'backlight drive circuit and TV' two patents.Currently, Beijing Intellectual Property Court has accepted Hisense Appliance v Sharp Infringement of the invention patent case.
In response, Sharp responded that it will actively respond to, and has made invalid claims on Hisense Electric patents involved.
In June, Sharp filed a lawsuit with California State Court on the grounds that Hisense Group sold low-quality LCD TVs that damaged its brand image, requesting the court to order the Hisense Group to stop using the SHARP trademark and compensate at least 100 million U.S. dollars. Soon, Sharp and Hisense Group also infringed on its patent grounds, sued Hisense Group, the ban on the sale of related products, but also asked the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation Hisense Group.
The dispute between Hisense and Sharp originated in 2015 when Sharp was in trouble, and Hisense invested $ 23.7 million to acquire Sharp's Mexican plant to gain access to Sharp TVs in the Americas except Brazil.
Hon Hai Group acquired a 66% stake in Sharp in 2016. In order to recover the operating rights of the Sharp brand, Hon Hai Group conducted negotiations with Hisense Group and Foxconn, a unit of Hon Hai Group, immediately took the lawsuit after it was rejected by Hisense Even with the U.S. government launched a 337 investigation and other means, trying to recover Sharp's brand licensing in North America.
Obviously, after experiencing price war, technical warfare and marketing war, this year's home appliance industry will push the patent war to the peak. For example, Gree and the United States this pair of 'enemies', around the patent case up to 12 This year, the patentee battle between the two giants once became the focus of attention of the industry: in June of this year, Gree filed a suit against US air-conditioners for infringing upon their utility model patents and claiming 50 million yuan After the United States in Guangzhou, Suzhou and other places in a row on the Gree launched four lawsuits, cumulative claims over 50 million yuan.
The same day in the prosecution of the United States, Gree also another Oaks under the air-conditioning company under a 'war book', said Oaks, more than 30 product infringement Gree a 'top and bottom water tray, bottom shell integration' patent, request The court confirmed Oakes infringement and sentenced compensation of 110 million yuan.
Intellectual property into 'around but not Hom'
In fact, as the competition intensifies, playing the 'patent war' seems to have become the norm of the home appliance industry in recent years.
In this regard, He Jun, associate professor of Tsinghua University Shenzhen Institute, said the frequent home appliance market claim for patent infringement lawsuits, on the one hand reflects the industry is fierce competition, on the other hand also reflects the home appliance market competition is being shifted from channel competition to innovation competition In the channel competition, the enterprises value the sales, and after they enter the innovation competition, the enterprises pay more attention to the product innovation and emphasize the product differentiation and the quality of the products, so pay more attention to the acquisition and protection of the intellectual property, and the value of the patent increases Big.
Lu Renbo, deputy secretary general of China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, also believes that with the structural adjustment of the home appliance industry, the increase in patent war is an inevitable trend.Past price competition, product competition, etc. have given way to the core technology competition, who have more advanced Products and more technical reserves, who can take the initiative in the new competition.
However, it should be noted that Lu Renbo said that patent rights between enterprises inevitably doping with some emotional factors and commercial purposes, if not 'rights protection' within a reasonable limit, blindly suppress counterparts, the result will inevitably fall into Vicious competition, when not only lose both lose, and may even affect the pond fish.
The industry generally believes that after decades of development, the tentacles of China's home appliance industry has extended to all corners of the world, including intellectual property rights, including patents have become 'can not be turned around' for a long time, the international market for home appliances enterprises Chinese enterprises represented have always been voicing doubts about the performance of intellectual property protection. Some believe that many Chinese enterprises rely on 'cottage' foreign advanced technology to occupy the international market and, on that ground, advocate the establishment of trade with Chinese related enterprises and industries Sanctions and trade barriers.
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law Intellectual Property Research Center, said Wu Han Dong, first-class business selling technology, first-class business selling standards, a measure of business bigger and stronger logo, is whether it has a first-class patented technology, have a first-class international brands. It seems that Chinese enterprises should not be difficult to make a big deal, but it is still a long way to go before they can become stronger and better. It is no exaggeration to say that intellectual property is the main battlefield for global enterprise competition and the market between enterprises and enterprises The final focus of competition is intellectual property. '
In recent years, the value of intellectual property in China is accelerating and the manufacturing industry in China is constantly pushing for changes to be made to China, and 'solidifying the foundation of intellectual property can not only help Chinese enterprises grow into multinationals with global influence, but also enable enterprises to Expand the market globally and allocate resources worldwide, "said Chen Hongbing, director of the WIPO office in China.
Giant seeking 'rise of intellectual property'
Chinese home appliance companies are speeding up their fight for the right to speak. Unlike the once-reliance on low-cost advantage of 'world factory', which is promoting the export of products, the hard power in the field of scientific and technological innovation has now become the new trump card for Chinese home appliance enterprises.
Sun Mingyan, legal and intellectual property expert from Midea Group, said that at present many enterprises are faced with transformation and upgrading, which brings many challenges to the home appliance industry. Among them, the most prominent one is the unprecedented intellectual property protection risk. From the domestic market to the international market, Moving from the traditional home appliances to smart home and smart manufacturing means that the United States must not only change its business model and technology research and development model, but also realize its "rise" in the field of intellectual property protection in order to cope with more complicated market competition.
'M & A and transformation mean that our business is moving into high-risk and high-risk markets. More cutting-edge, more basic and more common technology research and development have replaced the original short and fast product development, if not effectively protect their own Technology assets, but also can not control the risk of intellectual property infringement, the company is very likely to encounter major setbacks in the international market. "Sun Mingyan said.
The upgrading of the product itself is also prompting Chinese enterprises to enhance their intellectual property protection capabilities.Sen Mingyan said that after entering the smart home and robotics from the traditional home appliances, the United States is the universal access to the Internet products, artificial intelligence and other fields, and these precisely Are all intellectual property-intensive industries, and the sales market generally has a more stringent intellectual property protection environment. This requires that the enterprise's intellectual property system and system construction must meet the standards of multinational corporations.
As a leader in the appliance industry, Haier's achievements in the field of intellectual property is even more commendable November 19, the State Intellectual Property Office released the results of the 19th China Patent Award, Haier won with 'linear compressor technology' The only gold medal in the home appliance industry.At the same time, Haier also won two gold medals in design patents, five patent excellence awards, the total number of awards to eight.
Not long ago, in order to thank the trust and support of the world's one billion users, Haier also held a special Thanksgiving month in December to build the world's six major brands of scientific and technological achievements total of 52 new products in 42 cities in the country initiated a high quality , A global feast of consumption.
Behind all this, Haier has played an important role in the achievement of global resources integration, overseas patents, international standard-setting and national science and technology demonstration.