How important is mastering core patents for Chinese companies?

The high refresh rate display experience is smooth; the fast charging technology alleviates the anxiety of "lack of power"; the one-click film does not require laborious editing... In recent years, more and more "black technology" has been seen in the field of consumer electronics, which has become an important starting point for helping consumption upgrades and improving product experience. In fact, behind these "black technologies", it is inseparable from the support of scientific and technological innovation patent achievements.

According to the Global Innovation Index Report 2021 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's global ranking in the field of innovation has risen from 35th in 2013 to 12th, steadily rising for nine consecutive years, making it the highest-ranking middle-income economy at present.

As the main body of scientific and technological innovation, Huawei, OPPO, ZTE and other domestic enterprises have also continuously increased their research and development efforts, laid out core technologies in key areas in the future, and continuously improved their patent strength.

April 26 was World Intellectual Property Day. At present, how intellectual property rights drive technological innovation and how to help enterprises develop with high quality has become the focus of attention in the industry.

The development of INTELLECTUAL Property in mainland China has not been a smooth one

Looking back at history, the history of the development of intellectual property rights in the mainland also records the arduous growth history of some industries.

Around 2000, the mainland DVD player manufacturing industry developed rapidly, in 2001, the DVD export volume of Chinese enterprises accounted for 70% of the world's total DVD output, and the industry expansion momentum was rapid. At the same time, six foreign companies formed the 6C Patent Alliance and issued a statement of "DVD Patent Joint Licensing", requiring all MANUFACTURERs of DVDs in the world to pay patent licensing fees. At that time, exporting a DVD cost about $32, paying $18 in royalties abroad, and deducting the cost of $13, The profits of Chinese companies quickly diluted.

Similarly, in 2007, a foreign manufacturer proposed to charge a patent fee of $10 per unit to Chinese color TV companies. Therefore, Chinese color TV companies have to negotiate with foreign patent companies.

Whether it is the DVD or color TV industry, the "crisis" of these industries has exposed the lack of independent intellectual property rights of mainland enterprises at that time and the lack of core technical capabilities. It can be said that it is urgent to accelerate the development of intellectual property rights and innovative technology research and development.

The protection of intellectual property rights requires the use of legal weapons

The lack of development capabilities in the field of intellectual property rights is also promoting Chinese enterprises to vigorously invest in research and development, and continuously enhance their scientific and technological strength and patent reserves.

In the era of the Internet economy, the information and communication technology industry has developed rapidly and has continuously expanded its influence in the world. Patent-intensive industries, including the information and communication technology industry, have become a strong support and important development direction for innovative countries to promote high-quality economic and social development because of their outstanding innovation ability and strong market competitiveness.

According to the "Announcement on the Data on the Added Value of National Patent-Intensive Industries in 2020" jointly issued by the State Intellectual Property Office and the National Bureau of Statistics, the added value of patent-intensive industries in the country exceeded 12 trillion yuan in 2020, reaching 1.213 billion yuan, an increase of 5.8% year-on-year (without deducting price factors, the same below), which was 3.1 percentage points higher than the current price growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) in the same period; the proportion of GDP was 11.97%, an increase of 0.35 percentage points over the previous year.

During the Spring Festival in 2020, OPPO Japan received a patent infringement lawsuit from Sharp, followed by a patent lawsuit by Sharp in Germany, Western Europe and other countries and regions around the world. According to reports, in the face of this lawsuit, its intellectual property team relied on strong patent accumulation and litigation response capabilities, which eventually made most of the other party's patent infringement allegations unsupported, and made a large number of other parties' patents invalid. At the same time, using its own high-quality patents for deduction and crossover, to reach a patent cross-licensing agreement... Thanks to the efforts of many parties, the crisis was successfully resolved.

"We advocate fair use, advocate reasonable charges, strongly deal with unreasonable charges, and hope to establish a very long-term healthy intellectual property ecology." OPPO Chief Intellectual Property Officer Feng Ying said.

It is understood that the Chinese judicial organs issued a global "injunction order" in this case, successfully resolving the "anti-injunction order" from the first district court of Munich, Germany. At the same time, in October 2020, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court issued a jurisdiction ruling, which was the first time that a Chinese court had issued a ruling on jurisdiction over the global rate of standard essential patents, reflecting the right of Chinese law to speak on international rules.

Screenshot of the official website of China (Shenzhen) Intellectual Property Protection Center

In the industry's view, the key to the successful resolution of this crisis lies in the advance layout of the core technology of the enterprise. In fact, OPPO has become one of the world's largest patent holders, accounting for 90% of invention patents, and has accumulated a large number of high-quality patents in the fields of chips, images, charging, communication standards, and video standards. As of March 31, 2022, the company had applied for approximately 77,000 patents worldwide, accumulating more than 38,000 grants.

"In the market economy, enterprises are the main body of innovation. As an industry-leading technology enterprise, in the future, we will continue to increase investment in research and development, drive the development of intellectual property rights with high-quality patents, continue to transform technological innovation into intellectual property assets, and actively practice intellectual property protection to stimulate innovation. Feng Ying said.

From quantity to quality Accelerate the high-quality development of intellectual property rights

According to the statistics of foreign research institutions, a smart phone priced at 400 US dollars, the total cost of various patents is as high as 120 US dollars, even exceeding the cost of parts and components of the equipment.

It can be seen that patented research and development can not only greatly reduce the cost of enterprises, high-quality patented technology can even help enterprises "earn extra money", reasonably increase the income of other forms of business other than products, help enterprises develop better and healthier, so as to invest more research and development costs and form a virtuous circle.

At present, the international community has formed a "patent pool", "cross-licensing" and other ways to realize the value of "high-value patents", and jointly promote the construction of a mutually respectful, fair and reasonable intellectual property ecology.

In recent years, the mainland has continued to introduce relevant policies to continuously encourage enterprises to innovate and make breakthroughs. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy" proposes to enhance the competitiveness of key links such as 5G, integrated circuits, new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence, and industrial Internet. In this context, a large number of scientific and technological innovation achievements have emerged on the mainland.

In the Outline for the Construction of an Intellectual Property Power (2021-2035), it is proposed that the transformation of intellectual property work from the pursuit of quantity to the improvement of quality has been accelerated in an all-round way.

According to data from the State Intellectual Property Office, by the end of 2020, the number of invention patents per 10,000 people in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) reached 15.8, and the number of valid trademark registrations reached 30.173 million, which was more than 4 times that of 2012. Core patents, well-known trademarks, fine copyrights, and high-quality geographical indication products continued to increase.

Source: People's Daily News