'The United States claims that it will stop exporting chips to China partly, and it may also have an impact on European companies.' Siemens China's CEO Lothar Herrmann told the First Financial reporter on the eve of the Hannover Industrial Show.
China's manufacturing upgrade depends on the chip
Hermann said that China's manufacturing upgrade depends heavily on sensors. If the United States imposes a ban on sales in China, this will not only affect China's manufacturing industry, it may also affect other companies in China. 'The reason is that China These manufacturing companies are unable to invest in high-end manufacturing due to the lack of necessary semiconductor chips, which also means that we will lose the opportunity to help China's manufacturing upgrade.'
Siemens is betting on China's manufacturing upgrade and hopes to provide more profit in the digital transformation by providing software solutions for China's manufacturing industry. Siemens' industrial cloud platform MindSphere is an important achievement of its digital plant and can help traditional manufacturing companies. Realize the upgrading of digital industry.
According to the data provided by Siemens, about 1 million devices and systems have been interconnected through MindSphere. It is expected that by the end of 2018, this figure will reach 1.25 million.
At the beginning of this year, Siemens signed an agreement with China Resources Power to deploy an integrated networked remote operation center for its fleet. This is also Siemens' first digital power remote operation center project in China. Through data collection and analysis of connected clusters, CR Power has The 19 coal-fired units will be digitally networked with a total installed capacity of 9.6 GW. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
In view of the technical blockade tactics that the United States may adopt against China, China is vigorously developing its own intellectual property rights. A few days ago, Alibaba announced the acquisition of Zhongtian Microsystem, the only independent embedded CPU IP Core company in mainland China. According to Hermann, China’s development Independent research and development technology is the trend.
He told First Financial reporter: 'I do not think that China will instead rely on European technology. As an alternative, China is more inclined to develop its own R&D technology. China has a very good entrepreneurial environment and ecosystem, and there are many start-up companies. Many universities and research institutions also have top-notch technical talents and software engineers. They have made great progress in areas such as artificial intelligence, and have taken the lead in the world.
Strengthen intellectual property protection
The Chinese government has made a commitment to encourage normal technology exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and overseas companies, and has promised to protect the intellectual property rights of overseas companies in China. In response, Hermann told the First Financial reporter: “Siemens never worried about China's technology transfer will also actively develop technologies in China that are suitable for Chinese and global users. 'He also said that the success of Siemens in China over the past 30 years is based on cooperation with local companies to develop technology.
Herman believes that the most effective way to solve the trade dispute between China and the United States caused by intellectual property rights should be to better protect intellectual property rights. He told the reporter of the first financial report: 'The trade friction between China and the United States is The problem is not helpful, it will only have a negative impact on the global economy, but it will also affect the development of companies in other countries.
Currently, Siemens has more than 12,000 valid patents and patent applications in China. It is one of the countries in which Siemens has applied for the largest number of patents worldwide. Moreover, the company has a strict system of patent protection systems. Herman told the First Financial reporter : 'Siemens is not afraid of technology transfer because we have a very strong intellectual property protection department. We have applied for more than 10,000 patents in China; on the other hand, Siemens has spared no effort to share its advanced manufacturing technology, even at its core Technology. As long as we think it is necessary, we will export technology to China. '
Hermann gave an example to the First Financial reporter that Siemens and Baowu Group, for example, jointly developed technology solutions in the field of smart manufacturing and shared patents. 'I think this is a win-win move for Chinese manufacturing and Siemens' operations in China. "Hermann told the First Financial Reporter, 'The truth is very simple. If companies are willing to transfer technology to China, then you will transfer; if you do not want to, you will protect your technology from being infringed.'
In the process of digital transformation, Siemens also faced competitors from new areas. Beat Weibel, head of Siemens' Intellectual Property Department, told CBN reporters: 'Tata Consultancy, IBM, and Accenture's companies that are not in the same area as Siemens. , Also providing industrial software solutions, we are really facing new competitors.
In addition, companies are facing more and more challenges in patent applications related to software services. Weibel put forward three challenges: 'First of all, protecting patents is already a big challenge. The second big challenge is that software Many of the patents are intangible and must find a way to describe it. Third, software patents are often cross-products, so there is a very clear definition of product patents.