1. Apple is developing fuel cells to enhance the mobile phone's battery life;
According to foreign media reports, according to foreign media reports, Apple recently submitted a patent on fuel cells. According to the patent, Apple uses a special medium to control the multiple operations of the fuel cell after the small device is connected to the battery to realize the fuel cell. Applications on small devices (mobile phones)
A fuel cell is a battery that converts the chemical energy of a fuel into electrical energy through the chemical reaction of the fuel. The advantage is that the energy conversion efficiency is high, and the process of charging is not needed. The use of fuel can maintain long-term use.
Previously, foreign media also broke the news that Apple has been granted a patent for a layered battery system technology. This technology can achieve more efficient lithium battery applications, and has improved battery life and charging speed. Because the technology of lamellar battery technology has been developed for 10 years. For years, so the industry generally believe that this technology will usher in an outbreak this year.
However, the development of the battery technology to commercialization has a long way to go. It is unclear how the iPhone will solve the battery problem in the future.
2. Ericsson initiated a lawsuit against LG Electronics in the United States alleging that the latter infringed one of its patents;
According to IAM, Ericsson filed a lawsuit against LG Electronics in the United States District Court last month. This may be the result of Ericsson's patent portfolio facing and undergoing another court after TCL’s SEP FRAND dispute with TCL last year. test.
The Swedish telecom giant asked the court to announce that its licensing of LG Electronics had met FRAND's requirements and requested the court to rule that the Korean company had violated its FRAND obligation. Ericsson also accused the handset maker of infringing a patent (patent) No. 6,633,550).
The lawsuit occurred after the two companies failed to agree on a new licensing arrangement. Ericsson approached LG Electronics in March of last year for a licensing agreement and officially began negotiations in June. Both parties had previously been in 2003. , Reciprocal licensing transactions were reached in 2008 and 2014, and the last one expired in December last year. In addition to those early transactions, the close cooperation between the two companies also benefited from its LG-Ericsson joint venture.
3. Apple Qualcomm's Patent Warfare Escalation: Cook will appear in person;
The apple that has been tangled for a long time, Qualcomm's patent warfare has once again escalated. According to foreign media reports, this time Cook will appear in court to testify for Apple.
It is understood that this patent dispute can be traced back to 2014. Apple had filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm for patent fees. The lawsuit involved nearly 1 billion US dollars. The reason that Apple filed the lawsuit was that it accused Qualcomm of participating in anti-competitive and royalty fees. Mode and amount are too high.
Because the royalties charged by Qualcomm to Apple are not fixed, they are charged according to the cost of the whole machine. However, Apple believes that other than the technical standards of some industries (Qualcomm patents), other Apple-owned technologies do not need to pay fees to Qualcomm. Qualcomm believes that Apple provided evidence to the local supervisory authorities that they were untrue or attempted to interfere with the judgment.
According to foreign media reports, Cooke will appear in court on June 27. However, many media believe that even if the two sides appear again in the courtroom, no one party will still choose to withdraw to ease the contradiction between the parties. It is reported that both cases can produce Clear results must wait until the end of the year or even early next year.
With 5G coming, all terminal manufacturers are preparing for the arrival of 5G. Apple is no exception. With the escalation of the contradictions between Apple and Qualcomm, Apple has for a long time abandoned its cooperation with Qualcomm and switched to development cooperation with Intel. There are rumors that Apple will use Intel and MediaTek's baseband chips.
According to historical data, Qualcomm had been fined by the antitrust authorities in various regions for its 'monopoly', including a fine of US$902 million for South Korea and a fine of US$1.2 billion for the European Union. Prior to this, Qualcomm had a high patent fee and “monopoly” issues. Has also been questioned by the local mobile phone market.
4. China accelerates its transition to a strong intellectual property country;
A few days ago, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced that the number of applications for PCT international patents (patent applicants submitted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty) submitted in 2017 was 48,882 applications, ranking second in the world. Among the top 15 places in the international patent applications, China and India are the only two middle-income countries.
'From the data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, we can see that the Chinese government and companies are paying more and more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights.' Tao Xinliang, Dean of the Institute of Intellectual Property of Dalian University of Technology, said that intellectual property rights are the second largest economy in the world. The body has provided important support and has also become a magic weapon for Chinese companies to enter the international market.
In the past 10 years, China has made great achievements in improving the protection of the environment with intellectual property rights.
In 2008, China formulated the "Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy" and promoted the protection of intellectual property rights as a national strategy. In the past 10 years, China has made tremendous efforts in the protection of intellectual property rights, effectively creating a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment. .
In the past 10 years, the entire world has seen the Chinese government's effective efforts to improve the protection of the environment through intellectual property rights. 'Marc Snyder, senior vice president of Qualcomm, evaluated the foreign-funded enterprises within 10 years of the implementation of the "National Intellectual Property Strategy Outline." At the forum with the organization, China’s intellectual property protection went forward on a completely correct path, and Qualcomm’s unprecedented success in mobile communications was inseparable from the sound operation of China’s intellectual property system.
Zheng Junjia, the intellectual property manager of IBM (China) Co., Ltd., said: 'The implementation of China's IP strategy has led to the improvement of a series of laws and regulations such as the Patent Law and the Trademark Law, as well as standards-related laws and anti-monopoly laws. The laws and regulations related to competition are improving and are developing in the right direction. We also see that more and more Chinese companies have gradually gained experience in the use of intellectual property, and there have been many successful cases of expanding international markets, such as Huawei, ZTE et al. '
The data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization confirms Zheng’s statement: In 2017, Huawei and ZTE occupied the top two PCT international patent applications with 4,024 PCT international patent applications and 2,965 PCT international patent applications respectively. position.
A few days ago, the “2018 China Business Environment Survey” released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China showed that US companies in China believe that the investment environment in China is improving. The surveyed companies unanimously believe that the enforcement of intellectual property protection in China has remained stable or have been stable in recent years. With the continued optimization of the foreign investment environment, more and more foreign-funded enterprises will focus on China, the world’s second-largest economy with unlimited business opportunities. The data shows that in 2017, there were 35,652 new foreign-invested enterprises in the country. The year-on-year increase of 27.8%; actual use of foreign capital amounted to 877.56 billion yuan, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year.
The value of China’s intellectual property is recognized globally
According to data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently, in the world's top 15 places of origin, the annual growth rate of China’s PCT international patent applications has reached 13.4%, making it the only country that has achieved double-digit growth. And since 2003, China’s PCT International The annual growth rate of patent applications is higher than 10%.
'The world's second largest number of PCT international patent applications and its high annual growth rate reflect the increase in the overall strength of China's intellectual property in recent years. It also shows that China's intellectual property has a high gold content. ' Tao Xinliang said that in 2017, China’s domestic invention patents had The amount of patents for inventions and inventions has exceeded 1 million, and China is changing from a large intellectual property country to a strong intellectual property country.
'With the continuous improvement of the intellectual property environment in China, China has gradually become one of the most important markets in the world, and the value of intellectual property in the Chinese market is also constantly improving.' said Zhu Yu, president of Jiangsu Intellectual Property Research Institute.
In 2017, China’s export of intellectual property royalties exceeded US$4 billion for the first time. This shows that the value of China’s intellectual property has also been increasingly recognized around the world.’ Liu Haibo, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Strategic Consulting Research Institute said.
Strengthen international intellectual property cooperation and promote patents from the national level
'Now, China is transforming itself from a large IP country to a strong IP country, strengthening international IP cooperation, and promoting the export of patents from the national level is an important part of it.' He Zhimin, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office, introduced the 10th anniversary of the The meeting of the director of the State Council’s Intellectual Property Office was held in Chengdu and a joint statement was signed to further strengthen the BRICS cooperation in the field of intellectual property; in addition, China and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in intellectual property, confirming that China’s effective invention patents can Registration in Cambodia takes effect. Chinese invention patentees can quickly and easily obtain patent rights and related protection in Cambodia through this method.
At the 10th meeting of directors of the Intellectual Property Bureau of the BRICS, Shen Changyu, Director of the State Intellectual Property Office of China, Luis Otavio Pimentel, Director of Brazil's National Institute of Industrial Property, and Director of the Intellectual Property Office of the Russian Federation Golitoli Yivliyev, Indian Patent, Omápakash Gupta, Director of the Office of Design and Trademarks, and Roy Waller, Director of the South African Agency for the Registration of Companies with Intellectual Property Rights, jointly signed the “BRIC 5 Bureau for Strengthening Gold The joint statement of cooperation in the field of intellectual property in brick countries” stated that maintaining close cooperation is in the common interest of BRIC countries, which will help create an environment conducive to innovation and sustainable development and promote the development of intellectual property rights in emerging economies. Brick countries will further develop information exchange and cooperation in the seven aspects of laws and regulations, capacity building, intellectual property awareness raising, training, intellectual property information, coordination of international intellectual property forums, and construction of the BRIC cooperation mechanism.
'At the new historical starting point, China will promote the development of intellectual property rights and create a better environment for innovation and business environment.' Shen Changyu said. Lhasa City Government Network
5. Apple released two patents: Lidar and adaptive augmented reality head-up display;
According to foreign media reports, Patently Apple announced two Apple patents that can be used in self-driving cars. Details are as follows:
Vehicle Lidar Detection
Apple's patent Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a vehicle equipped with one or more sensors to explore other vehicles.
Apple's patent Figure 2 shows a side view of the sensor, which is intended to send signals to multiple reflectors built into the vehicle. Figures 2b-2d depict various types of reflectors intended to reflect signals. Figure 3a - Figure 3c shows a number of block diagrams of the vehicle, the vehicle is equipped with a different number of components of the reflector, this type of equipment can identify multiple directions of the vehicle.
Adaptive Augmented Reality (AR) display with 3D images
Real-time AR technology faces many challenges. When the vehicle passes through a changing driving environment, the transmission speed and angle of the main display technology will change frequently.
The AR system can use the 3D grid map data to provide augmented reality geographic information or supplementary information for on-board sensors on the head-up display.
In addition, pre-generated 3D mesh map data can be used in real-time environments, 360 degree vehicle perimeter panoramas, and more. In some use cases, 3D mesh map data can be used to provide environmental information, including: Invisible Target and vehicle rear, side environment.
This type of data can also be used in AR systems to assist vehicles in poor visibility/restricted driving scenarios. For example, 3D network map data can be used in augmented reality sensor data to show upcoming Curved or crossroads.
Apple's patent Figure 2 shows an adaptive augmented reality system and a head-up display. Figure 6 shows an example of an adaptive head-up display.
Apple's patent Figure 5 shows a 3D mesh and virtual content, including adjacent and visible parts. There are also occluded portions and distant views.
Allegedly, the specific time to market for this patent is pending.
6. Apple was pointed to operators to pass on advertising and maintenance costs facing South Korean penalties;
According to the "Korean Herald" reported on April 9th, Beijing time, industry sources said on Sunday that Apple is likely to be penalized by South Korean antitrust authorities for shifting advertising and maintenance costs to Korean telecom operators.
According to sources, the secretariat of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has recently agreed to impose penalties on Apple Korea’s unfair behavior and sent a review report to Apple Korea requesting the latter to explain. Listening to the apple After the South Korean explanation, the FTC will determine whether or not to impose sanctions and penalties on Apple within a few days.
In the past few years, Apple Korea has been criticized by local mobile operators. South Korean operators accused Apple of transferring the cost of selling iPhones to them, including advertising costs, conference costs, and maintenance costs.
In November last year, the three major operators in Korea - SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus - launched television advertisements at the request of Apple to promote the design and functionality of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, but they had to pay for themselves. 'You look at the iPhone's TV commercials, all the same, are only different at the end of the operator Logo. However, telecom operators have to bear all costs, reaching billions of won,' said a South Korean operator.
The price of the Apple flagship iPhone X has also been criticized by local consumers. The price of the 64GB, 256GB version of the iPhone X is about 200,000 won (US$187) higher than the price in Japan and the United States.
The FTC launched an investigation into Apple in 2016 and raided the Apple Korea office in June 2016 and November 2017.
In other markets, Apple was fined 700 million won by China Taiwan in 2013 for controlling the cost of the iPhone. Last year, Apple was fined 64 billion won by France for unfair behavior against operators. (Compiled / Yu Yu) Phoenix Net Technology