In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes and create a good intellectual property development environment for my country's LED industry, the LED Industry Patent Alliance initiated by the Guangdong Semiconductor Lighting Industry Joint Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as the Joint Innovation Center) was recently established in Guangdong. The patent alliance will integrate relevant valuable resources and establish an LED industry patent data platform. Through retrieval of domestic and foreign LED industry patent data, it will analyze industrial technology trends, major competitors' patent layouts and industrial technology development hot spots, and provide intellectual property services to alliance members and domestic LED companies.
Relevant experts said that despite the rapid development of the domestic LED industry, it still faces many problems. On the one hand, the patent war in the LED industry is spreading in the future, with lurking crises and dangers everywhere. Intellectual property pressure from outside poses a threat to the healthy development of my country's LED industry. On the other hand, many domestic scientific and technological workers and universities have many patents, but it is difficult to achieve industrialization. By establishing a patent alliance, we can integrate industry resources, resolve internal conflicts, improve our ability to respond to external intellectual property litigation, and accelerate the voice of my country's LED companies in the international market.
Current situation: The scale of the industry continues to expand and it faces external litigation pressure
Data show that in 2013, the overall scale of my country's semiconductor lighting industry reached 291.5 billion yuan (excluding supporting equipment, materials, exhibitions, testing and other service industries), of which the upstream epitaxial chip scale reached 13.8 billion yuan, the midstream packaging scale reached 63.8 billion yuan, and the downstream application scale reached 213.9 billion yuan. my country's semiconductor lighting industry has begun to take shape and has formed a relatively complete industrial chain. A number of key enterprises are growing vigorously. The gap between key technologies for industrial development and international levels is gradually narrowing. Demonstration applications have ranked among the best in the world. The functional lighting market is gradually opening up.
In recent years, Chinese LED companies have expanded in overseas markets by virtue of their cost advantages, which has put a certain amount of pressure on international competitors. At the same time, large international companies are also coveting the huge Chinese LED market. This can be seen from the patent pressure that foreign giants continue to exert on domestic companies. The "LED Patent Trend Analysis Report" released by the Joint Innovation Center shows that as of May this year, global LED patent litigation cases are on the rise, including as many as 20 cases where overseas companies have sued domestic LED companies.
Hangzhou Silijie Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Silijie) is a domestic company engaged in the production of LED driver chips. During the development of the company, it has encountered "raids" on patents from foreign companies, which made this company pay special attention to patents. "In the process of growth, we have relied on our technological leadership to continuously expand our market share. Therefore, whether when the company was founded or on the eve of its listing, we have encountered all kinds of 'harassment' in terms of patents from foreign competitors." In an interview with a reporter from the China Intellectual Property News, You Butong, chief technology officer of Silicon Lijie, said that as the scale of my country's LED industry continues to expand, excess production capacity can no longer support industry development needs solely relying on the domestic market. Domestic companies exporting products overseas will inevitably pose a threat to foreign companies, and patents will become an important weapon for these foreign companies to suppress domestic companies.
According to Li Wenyu, director of the Strategic Research Department of the Joint Innovation Center and secretary-general of the LED Industry Patent Alliance, behind the increasing number of LED patent lawsuits is undoubtedly the game of interests in the LED industry. As LED lighting enters the golden period of development, large LED companies around the world are all stepping up their use of patents as a weapon to gain market dominance, and patent wars will become a normal trend. "International giants have not really used patent weapons to attack domestic companies. The main reason is that they are waiting for the growth of Chinese LED companies. As the domestic LED market booms, more and more foreign companies are turning their attention to China, and a large wave of infringement lawsuits are quietly approaching us." Li Wenyu said in an interview with a reporter from China Intellectual Property News.
Problem: Patent layout is dominated by foreign countries and domestic companies have weak awareness
It is understood that in order to comprehensively understand the patent layout of the global LED industry and grasp the patent "family background" of my country's LED companies, the Joint Innovation Center recently completed an "LED Patent Trend Analysis Report". After searching Chinese patent documents, it was found that as of January 2013 On February 31, the global LED industry formed a tripartite industrial distribution and competition pattern dominated by the United States, Asia, and Europe. The United States' CREE and Lumileds, Japan's Nichia and Toyoda Gosei, Germany's OSRAM and other companies monopolize the high-end product market. The above five giants have their own advantages in each link of the LED industry chain. Nichia Chemical and Toyoda Gosei play an important role in the development of the LED industry, forming a complete LED industry chain. Among them, Nichia Chemical has strong strength in blue light chips and has a monopoly advantage in patented technology; Kerui has its own mature technology system; Lumileds focuses on the research and development of high-power LEDs and is strong in the field of white light lighting.
Judging from the types of patent applications submitted by Chinese enterprises, utility model patent applications accounted for a relatively high proportion, reaching 43.55%, design patent applications accounted for 31.11%, and invention patent applications accounted for only 25.34%. Judging from the distribution of technology fields, the patent applications submitted by domestic companies are mainly concentrated in applications and packaging. The upstream areas of the industry chain, such as chips and raw materials, are the shortcomings of domestic companies.
"Currently, domestic enterprises are not very aware of intellectual property rights and have not really realized the importance of patents to enterprise development. In the more than a year since the preparation of the LED Industry Patent Alliance to its establishment, the low enthusiasm of some enterprises to participate is a good example. At present, the first batch of people to join the alliance are all from the industry. "Enterprises with strong domestic technology foundation and strong R&D capabilities." Li Wenyu emphasized that although the domestic LED industry is currently large-scale, it lacks a group of leading enterprises, and the industry development is small and fragmented. If enterprises do not pay attention to technology research and development and patent layout, many uncertain factors facing future development will lay hidden dangers for the enterprise itself and the entire industry.
The way out: Integrate resources to stay warm and work together to tackle key problems and collaborate on innovation
It is understood that although international giants have built patent barriers, unlike other industries, due to the long LED industry chain, multiple technical routes, and wide range of applications, companies at a disadvantage in patent competition can bypass existing patent barriers through different technical routes. In other words, under the current conditions, domestic companies do not have no chance to break through the patent defense lines woven by foreign companies.
"Domestic enterprises should seek differentiated development. Developing market-competitive products through independent innovation is an important way for enterprises to improve their core competitiveness." Sun Yinsheng, legal director of Beijing Deli Intellectual Property Services Co., Ltd., said that at present, domestic enterprises have a weak foundation in talent, technology and other aspects, resulting in the lack of core technologies. Enterprises should strengthen the combination of industry, academia and research, and truly connect market demand and scientific research, so as to truly solve the development problems faced by the industry.
Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you be victorious in a hundred battles. In You Budong's view, keeping abreast of and gaining insight into the development status and industry development trends of the industry and competitors is the key for companies to maintain competitiveness. However, due to the limited scale of the company, the analysis of relevant patent information is not comprehensive. This is also the problem that Silicon Lijie is most looking forward to solving when joining the LED Industry Patent Alliance.
"An important task of the Patent Alliance is to establish an LED industry patent data platform. Through retrieval of domestic and foreign LED industry patent data, it analyzes industrial technology trends, the patent layout of major competitors and hot spots in industrial technology development, and regularly reports to alliance member units Share and provide assistance for the scientific development of enterprises." Li Wenyu said that the alliance will integrate the resource advantages of each member and actively build a "patent pool" for the LED industry. At the same time, it plans to establish an expert committee to provide services and guidance to alliance members in patent litigation, technology research and development, patent operations, patent pledges, etc.
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