Accelerate innovation and use intellectual property rights to promote the formation of new quality productivity.
When the bell of the 24th World Intellectual Property Day rang on April 26, we ushered in a new round of IP discussions on the theme of "Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals: Building a Shared Future through Innovation and Creativity".
The communications industry is a highly dependent field of technological innovation, and every step of the way is inseparable from the protection of intellectual property.
In recent years, the overall strength of intellectual property rights in the field of telecommunications in mainland China has been rising, and it has gradually entered the forefront of the world in terms of the number and quality of patents and international competitiveness. With the rapid development and application of the new generation of information and communication technology, "cross-border integration" has become one of the important trends in the development of intellectual property in the field of communication. The integration of communication technology and artificial intelligence (AI) empowers all walks of life, how to better break through the technical blockages in cross-cutting fields, promote the application of vertical industries, and become a new growth point to promote technological innovation and patent application in the field of communications.
Patent "True and False"
Escort the high-quality development of the communications industry
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland has made historic achievements in the protection of intellectual property rights. The legal system of intellectual property rights has been gradually improved, and the administrative and judicial protection of intellectual property rights has been significantly strengthened. Social satisfaction with intellectual property protection increased from 63.69 in 2012 to 80.05 in 2020.
With the in-depth implementation of the Outline for Building an Intellectual Property Power (2021-2035), the creation, application and protection of high-value patents have become a key task of intellectual property rights in the field of communications. Comprehensive and deepening technological innovation and intellectual property protection are constantly driving and ensuring the high-quality development of the communications industry.
On April 22, the Supreme People's Court held a press conference to report on the overall situation of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in courts across the country in 2023, the collection and selection of public welfare short films on intellectual property protection, and released the top 10 intellectual property cases and 50 typical intellectual property cases in Chinese courts in 2023, including typical cases related to the communications industry.
For example, data is a key element of the digital economy. The copyright infringement and unfair competition dispute case between Beijing No. 4 Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Baimou Technology Co., Ltd. is a typical case of navigation electronic map protected by copyright law. This case not only provides an in-depth analysis of the elements of navigation electronic maps to constitute graphic works, but also provides a useful exploration of the substantial similarity comparison of massive map data, highlighting the important role of intellectual property judicial adjudication services in ensuring the digital economy.
In the typical case of illegally scraping data for trading and resale, the judgment of the unfair competition dispute case between Beijing Micro Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Jian Information Technology Co., Ltd. is based on the balance between "strong protection" and "orderly circulation" of data, clarifying the boundaries of data rights and interests protection, reflecting the clear judicial attitude of judicial trials to guide market entities to obtain and use data in a "proper manner and in a proper manner".
Tao Kaiyuan, Vice President of the Supreme People's Court, pointed out that 2023 is the first year for the full implementation of the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the people's courts adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, focus on the theme of "fairness and efficiency", firmly establish the judicial concept that the protection of intellectual property rights is the protection of innovation, and the judicial protection of intellectual property rights has achieved remarkable results.
It can be seen that the comprehensive deepening of technological innovation and intellectual property protection is constantly driving and ensuring the high-quality development of the communications industry. Through the exclusivity of patent rights, the patentees in the communications industry can obtain certain economic returns, and this economic incentive allows the patentees in the telecommunications industry to have more motivation and resources to continue to invest in R&D and innovation.
For example, Hengtong Group regards intellectual property rights as the ballast stone of high-quality development, achieves industry-leading patent achievements, and leads and participates in the formulation of a number of international and domestic industry standards, and has obtained a total of 5000+ patents, including 1600+ invention patents, promoting enterprises to move from "manufacturing enterprises" to "intelligent manufacturing enterprises", and injecting a steady stream of vitality into high-quality development. Yan Kun, director of the Judicial Appraisal and Patent Standards Research Department of the Intellectual Property and Innovation Development Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said in an interview with the all-media reporter of the "Communication Industry News" (network) that by carrying out patent navigation and patent early warning, it can play a scientific decision-making role in the technological innovation of the communication industry and enterprises. By carrying out patent layout and protection, it can enhance the bargaining chips and defense methods of communication enterprises in the face of patent disputes, and protect the competitive advantages obtained by communication enterprises in the global market. By standardizing patented technologies, it is also possible to promote the wide application and iterative upgrading of communication technologies. In short, the patent system provides a steady stream of impetus for the high-quality development of the communications industry by playing a role in stimulating innovation.
Look at the pattern from the share
Patent "business" in the wireless market
As the forefront of technological innovation, the continuous progress of the communications industry is closely linked to the strict protection of intellectual property rights. In mainland China, with the deepening of the emphasis on intellectual property rights, the overall strength of intellectual property rights in the field of communications has been significantly enhanced, not only in terms of the number of patents, but also in terms of patent quality and international competitiveness, and has gradually become one of the world's leading ranks.
Since its commercial launch in 2019, 5G technology has been rapidly popularized around the world, and standard essential patents (SEPs) have become the best way to understand the technology landscape and trends in the 5G field.
According to Wang Lei, senior intellectual property engineer of the Intellectual Property Development Research Center of the State Intellectual Property Office, with the dematerialization of Western industries, it has become the norm to harvest profits and attack competitors through patent fees. In the field of telecommunications, patentees gain profit and market control. For example, Qualcomm's patent licensing business accounted for 76.3% of its net profit. Patents are crucial in the field of communications, and their importance cannot be overemphasized.
In April this year, the "5G Necessity Report (Latest Findings)" released by GreyB, an international innovation consulting company, hereinafter referred to as the "Report", introduced the patent necessity perspective into the 5G SEP rankings, showing people a more real global 5G overall technology status and industry strength map, and also providing another idea for re-evaluating the true value of 5G SEP and the actual contribution of Chinese enterprises.
As of December 31, 2019, the report counts 25,199 5G SEP families (including 117924 patent documents) that have been declared to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and as of December 31, 2022, 21,221 of these patent families still have at least one granted patent with protection in the term of protection, accounting for 84.2%.
From the perspective of the distribution of patent enterprises, among the above-mentioned 5G SEPs, the top six patent companies are Huawei (13.2%), ZTE (11.1%), Samsung (10.5%), Nokia (8.8%), Ericsson (8.6%), and Qualcomm (8.3%), and the six companies account for nearly 60% of the share. If only valid patent families are counted, the above rankings are Huawei (13.9%), Samsung (10.7%), ZTE (10.0%), Qualcomm (8.6%), Ericsson (8.6%), and Nokia (8.3%), which also reflects the current wireless communication market pattern from a certain perspective.
In fact, in the 5G era, the leading position of Chinese enterprises in 5G technology research and development has been widely recognized. According to the "Research Report on Global 5G Standard Essential Patents and Standard Proposals (2023)" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in April 2023, according to the statistics of industry entities that have made 5G SEP declarations in ETSI, among the top ten companies with the largest number of effective global 5G patent families, Huawei, ZTE, Datang, OPPO, and Xiaomi occupy half of the country, while Samsung, Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Nokia are also listed.
Wang Lei said that according to the characteristics of the interconnection of the communication industry, the global communication industry is operated in strict accordance with the standards, and the standard essential patents of communication technology will occupy a dominant position in the industrial operation. With the frozen version of the 5G standard R15/16/17, the upcoming frozen version of R18, the distribution trend of 5G communication standard essential patents has been basically determined, according to the development law of mobile communication technology "use a generation, build a generation, and develop a generation", the next 3 to 5 years will be a critical period for 6G patent layout and standard grabbing.
In Yan Kun's view, the use of standard essential patents (SEPs) in the field of communications and the formulation of patent licensing rates will bring greater challenges to patent protection in communications and related industries.
On the one hand, patent infringement lawsuits in the communications industry often revolve around standard essential patents. At present, major countries and key communications companies around the world are paying close attention to the formulation of next-generation information and communication technology standards, hoping to establish advantages in the formulation of standards and enhance their own voice. In the process of formulating standards such as 5G-A and 6G, how to stand out from many candidate technical solutions and improve core competitiveness is a problem that mainland communication enterprises need to focus on.
In addition, due to the imperfect pricing mechanism of unified and transparent patent license fees, it is often difficult for telecommunications patentees and patent implementers to reach a unified license rate and end up in court. In recent years, the global trend of patent infringement litigation in the field of telecommunications has also reflected the huge demand for reasonable and clear licensing rates in the industry. How to build a benign ecosystem between different industries by formulating reasonable licensing rates and efficient licensing models is a common issue faced by the communications industry and vertical industries.
It is worth mentioning that in view of the issue of patent fees, many experts believe that patent fees are not the goal, and patent licensing and transfer are an important part of the patent system, which is of great significance for stimulating innovation, protecting innovation achievements, accelerating technology transformation and application, and promoting the healthy development of the industry. On the basis of ensuring the number of patents, the industry should do a solid job in the patent layout, improve the quality of patents, and pay less for the price of launching the market due to patent disputes, so as to give full play to the value of accumulating patents.
Focus on cross-border integration
Strengthen the patent market
With the rapid development of information technology, especially the wide application of 5G, Internet of Things, cloud computing and other technologies, "cross-border integration" has become an important trend in the development of intellectual property rights in the field of communications. This integration is not only reflected in the technical level, but also in the innovation of industrial applications and business models. In particular, the combination of communication technology and artificial intelligence (AI) has brought great changes and new growth points to all walks of life.
Previously, IPRdaily released the ranking of Chinese artificial intelligence invention patent enterprises (TOP50). The list counts the artificial intelligence invention patents applied for and published in China in the past ten years, Tencent, Baidu, Ping An, State Grid, Huawei, Ant Group, Alibaba, JD.com Group, OPPO, and China Mobile are among the top 10 Chinese enterprises.
In the field of communication, the current integration of wireless communication networks and AI technologies mainly focuses on the integration of three typical use cases: CSI feedback enhancement, beam management, and localization of NR air interfaces at the physical layer with AI technologies.
Worldwide, the total number of published patent applications related to CSI feedback enhancement, beam management, and localization in the field of AI-based air interface technology is 9,640. The United States and China lead the way in the number of patent applications. The United States and China are the main source countries for patent applications, with the United States filing 3,848 of the 9,640 global patent applications, accounting for about 39% of the total number of patent applications in the world, ranking first, China filing 3,725 applications, accounting for about 38% of the total number of patent applications in the world, ranking second, 734 patent applications from Europe, ranking third, accounting for about 8% of the total number of patent applications in the world, and South Korea filing 685 applications, ranking fourth, accounting for about 7% of the total number of patent applications in the world. There were 258 patent applications from Japan, accounting for about 3% of the total number of patent applications in the world, and other countries such as India, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore accounted for 5% of the total number of patent applications in the world.
In the context of cross-border integration, how to effectively break through the technical blockages in cross-cutting fields and promote the application of vertical industries has become a new challenge and opportunity for technological innovation and patent application in the current communication field.
On the one hand, communication companies should continue to adhere to independent innovation in the field of next-generation information and communication technologies such as 5G. Strengthen the main awareness of scientific and technological innovation of enterprises, improve the ability to tackle key core technologies, and focus on solving key common technical problems across the fields of communications and vertical industries. Implement the strategy of enterprise intellectual property layout, and strengthen the cultivation of high-value patents and standard-essential patents. Seize the window period for the formulation of standards such as 5G-A and 6G, and contribute more and better Chinese solutions to the next generation of communication standards.
On the other hand, telecommunications companies should continue to improve their ability to deal with intellectual property disputes. Strengthen research on the prediction and early warning of intellectual property risks in key areas, and establish mechanisms for initiating and responding to litigation. When necessary, seek licensing negotiation guidance and legal services from third-party professional institutions, and safeguard the legitimate interests of the enterprise with the help of judicial appraisal and other means. Actively participate in guiding the formulation of global communications patent licensing rules, and work with foreign communications companies to build a benign ecology of innovation and application in the global communications industry.
Undoubtedly, with the rapid development and application of a new generation of information and communication technology, "cross-border integration" has become an important trend in the development of intellectual property rights in the field of communications. We should keep up with the pace of the times, strengthen cross-border cooperation and collaborative innovation, improve the mechanism for the protection and application of intellectual property rights, cultivate an interdisciplinary and cross-field talent team, and jointly promote technological innovation and patent application in the field of communications to a new level.
Written by: Party blog post
Editor: blog post
Guidance: Xin Wen
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: The number of 5G base stations in mainland China is 3.189 million, and the number of 5G standard essential patent declarations accounts for 42% of the world's total.
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