On April 24, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court conducted a first-instance verdict in six cases in which Zhuhai Gree Electric Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Gree') v. Ningbo Oaks Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Aux') infringed the patent right. Three cases constituted patent infringement, and Oaks was awarded a total compensation of 46 million yuan for Gree.
In an interview with a reporter from the China Business News, Oaks-related staff said that the company did not accept the results of the first-instance judgment and appealed in court. Currently, it is collecting evidence. Gree also said that Gree and Oakes' patent litigation cases were There is no information available yet.
In recent years, sales of air conditioners in the domestic market topped the top five in the domestic market. Gree, Midea, and Oaks’ patent disputes continued to heat up. In response, the industry analysts analyzed that the patent lawsuits of the air-conditioning giants continued to increase, and corporate awareness of patent protection increased. To come into competition with the market to enter the white-hot stage has a close connection.
Oaks first trial was awarded 46 million
Gree and Oaks' series of patent litigations had preliminary results recently. On April 24, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court conducted a first-instance verdict on six cases in which Gree v. Oaks infringed patents, of which three cases constituted patent infringement. So that Oaks stopped selling infringements, it also required compensation for Gree totaling 46 million yuan.
One of the cases with a relatively high amount of compensation received much attention. Gree pointed out that the defendant, Oaks, without permission, produced, sold, and promised to sell eight types of air-conditioning products using Gree’s patented technology, infringing Gree’s patent rights.
In this regard, the court held that the accused infringing product fell into the scope of protection of the plaintiff Gree's patent rights. Oakes' technical defense could not be established. He ordered Oakes to immediately destroy the inventory infringing products and manufacture special molds for infringing products, and to compensate Gree economic losses and The right to maintain a reasonable total cost of 40 million yuan.
In the remaining two cases, the Oaks manufacturing and sales were sued by the court to constitute infringement, and Oaks constituted a burden of proof, and Oaks was awarded a compensation of 6 million yuan for Gree’s claim.
In respect of the 40 million yuan compensation case, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court held that Oaks had continued to mass produce and sell 8 cases of the above-mentioned cases in the case of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court in 2016 when it was determined that two models of products infringed Gree on the same patent rights. Products, serious infringement, obvious infringement and malicious intent, should be severely punished by law. In all aspects, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court stated that the plaintiff Gree’s claim of RMB 40 million was lawful and not exceeding a reasonable range, so it provided full support.
Oaks-related staff told reporters that the company did not accept the outcome of the first-instance judgment. 'The court filed an appeal and is currently collecting evidence.' Gree Electric Marketing Minister Chen Zili also told reporters that Gree and Oakes' patent litigation has not ended. , No information is available at this time.
Air-conditioning patent warfare continued
Gree and Oaks' air-conditioning patent disputes can be traced back to 2015. And in 2017, Gree and Oaks became more and more fierce in air-conditioning patents.
In June 2017, Gree believes that the new Athena series air conditioner of Oaks in 2017 infringed Gree’s patent on “Integral tray and bottom tray integration”, which in turn sued Oaks Air Conditioning to the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province and claimed 1. 110 million yuan, setting the highest domestic patent price for domestic appliance industry.
However, in response to Gree's many infringements in air-conditioner motor installations, panels, and air guiding doors, Oakes subsequently filed a lawsuit with the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court and demanded that Gree compensate more than 50 million yuan.
Gree and Oaks's air-conditioning patent dispute can be described as a strong smell of gunpowder. As early as June 2017, Gree Yu, assistant to the director of Gree's Intellectual Property Office, once told the media that since 2010, Oaks has gone through a variety of unfair ways to poach for more than 300 Gree. R&D, QC and other key personnel; In addition, from 2015 to June 2017, Oaks was charged with 15 patent infringements by Gree. At that time, Oaks thought that Gree was a commercial means for its prosecution. Want to stop the pace of expansion.
On the other hand, Gree and Midea's patent battle for air-conditioning patents are in the same smoke. The reporter learned from the acceptance of case information released by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court WeChat on June 19, 2017 that Gree's 'Refrigeration King' series of air conditioners infringed Gree. The relevant utility model patents were filed for litigation and required a compensation of 50 million yuan.
Regarding the reasons why Gree frequently initiated air-conditioning patent litigation, Chen Zili told this reporter that 'China must follow the path of innovation-driven development. We must respect intellectual property rights. Gree’s lawsuit is not for claims. The purpose is to attract attention from Chinese manufacturing companies. Intellectual property. '
At present, patent disputes between the air-conditioning giants have continued to be the norm. The reporter learned from the official website of the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office that many of the invalid declaration requests issued on April 25 involved Gree, Oaks, Midea, etc. Home appliance business.
Among them, Midea's Gree name is 'Air conditioner and its control method' 'Open cabinet air conditioner' 'Air conditioning indoor unit and air conditioner', and Oakes' name is 'An air conditioner trim strip structure' 'Air conditioning base' 'Air conditioner indoor unit Several patents filed a request for invalidation, and the Patent Reexamination Board made a review decision that the patent right was invalid in whole or in part. In addition, Oakes filed a request for invalidation of Gree's patent for the 'air-conditioning indoor unit's wind deflector connection device'. , It is determined that all patent rights are invalid.
Home appliance industry observer Hong Shibin told reporters that patent lawsuits between air-conditioning giants have continued. In addition to the improvement of patent protection awareness of enterprises, it has also been closely linked with the intense competition in the market. 'Before this industry competition was mainly focused on scale, channels, brands, etc. On the other hand, the competition at the patent level means that the market is highly competitive.
Expansion wave hidden hidden worry
The other side of frequent patent warfare is the rapid growth of the domestic air-conditioning market and fierce competition among brands.
In 2017, domestic household air conditioners ushered in retail peaks, with retail sales of 193.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.4%, and retail volume of 56.14 million units, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%.
At the same time, major air-conditioning brands are also actively responding to the market, such as Gree, Haier, Oaks, Changhong, Chigo have all recently announced air-conditioning expansion plans.
Among them, Chigo plans to build an advanced complete machine manufacturing base with an annual output of 4 million sets of air conditioners. At the end of October 2017, the Oaks air-conditioning smart factory in Jiangshan, Ganzhou was officially completed, and it is expected that the annual output will reach 7 million sets, Oaks said for the next 3 years It will also invest 10 billion yuan in smart factories.
In addition, the reporter learned from Gree’s announcement that the new air-conditioning base project is one of the key investment projects that Gree is planning and implementing. The Luoyang and Nanjing bases are being planned, and the Hangzhou base is under construction.
'First of all, from the demand side, in 2016, there were 100 households that had air-conditioning in the domestic market, 124 in cities and towns, and 47.6 in rural areas. The penetration rate of 248 air conditioners in comparison to Japan was still very low, especially in the tertiary and tertiary markets. The rural market. 'In an interview with reporters, Wang Yongtao, senior research manager of AVC's home appliances division, said that as the country's urbanization strategy and the strategy for the promotion of rural areas continue to advance, the air-conditioning market will continue to grow.' , The demand space for the air-conditioning follow-up market still exists.
Regarding the phenomenon of large air-conditioning companies expanding air-conditioning production capacity, Wang Yongtao believes that in addition to the strong follow-up demand in the air-conditioning market in the past two years, the second is to increase production efficiency. 'Air-conditioning is a seasonal product, and old production lines can hardly meet market explosive demand. , To reform the production line, to internetize, to increase production efficiency.
However, this wave of production expansion has begun to underscore the hidden dangers of overcapacity in air-conditioning capacity. Ovid Cloud (AVC) expects total retail sales of domestic air-conditioners to reach 186 billion yuan in 2018, a year-on-year decline of 3.7%; total retail volume is 5,313 Million sets, will drop 5.4% year-on-year.
'Real estate policies began to tighten in 2017. The impact of air-conditioning on the first quarter of 2018 can be seen in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other major cities that have strictly controlled negative growth. Demand continues to tighten, then for the third- and fourth-tier cities It is said that after two years of growth, some market demand has been released, and it is very difficult to maintain a high growth rate. 'Wang Yongtao said.
In addition, some analysts believe that when the market demand declines, the competition between brands will intensify, and in 2018, the number of new brands entering the market will increase to more than a dozen, and the market will have a more pronounced Matthew effect. Some companies will be later Market elimination.
According to the quarterly report of Air Conditioning (AVC) 2018, the domestic air-conditioning market retail sales of 33.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.9%, but compared with the growth rate of 31.9% in the same period of 2017, the industry growth rate has significantly declined.
Author: Xu Yonghong, Tong Haihua