Letv "landing" US patent first

Nanjing Hua News: Letv held a press conference in San Francisco on October 19 to introduce to the audience the "ecological" system and a series of new products and services advocated by this Chinese private enterprise. The so-called "ecology" is a buzzword in today's information technology industry, which can be interpreted as a combination or integration of products and services.

Starting with Internet video in 2004, Letv positioned itself as an Internet enterprise, and gradually entered the fields of film and television production and distribution, intelligent terminals, e-commerce, electric vehicles and so on. At the press conference, LETV stressed that its means to achieve "ecology" is to break the boundary between business, products and services, referred to as "breaking the boundary". For example, this "landing" in the United States, in order to meet the needs of local consumers, online Letv Mall not only sells existing products such as mobile phones and televisions, but also plans to launch "super bicycles" and "virtual reality" (VR) head-mounted display devices. Outside the conference, a LeTV product display area was set up, and the exhibits even included an "upgraded" LeTV electric car. Letv Group CEO Jia Yueting admitted that these products seem to be unrelated, but they represent the future of the "new species". He said that LeTV's "ecological" landing in the United States is not to "beat and compete" with peer companies in related fields, but to use industrial chain integration and "value reconstruction across the industrial chain... Breaking innovation".

Before landing in the United States, on April 20 this year, Letv held a super product launch conference in China and released four new products: cars, televisions, mobile phones and VR, which attracted the attention of countless people at that time. At the scene of the press conference, in addition to showing Letv's products and the prices of some products, Jia Yueting also showed the number of patents for related products, including: 2349 patents applied for EUI, 67 patents applied for 9-channel live streaming technology, 2597 patents applied for TV, 2307 patents applied for mobile phones, more than 110 patents applied for CDLA only, and 833 patents applied for electric vehicles, more than 100 patents were filed in the United States. At the same time, according to Letv's official media, the number of global patent applications has reached more than 11000.

Seeing these dazzling terms and the huge number of patents, many people can't help but ask: what does Letv need so many patents for? Are patents really useful? To sum up, companies like Letv, which are willing to invest a lot of resources in patents, all hope that patents can play the following roles.

One is to show the strength of enterprise research and development. Jia Yueting may be difficult to explain the performance of Letv's various products one by one, but in order to prove Letv has strong research and development strength, he borrowed the patent tool. The basic attribute of a patent is to have novelty, creativity and practicality, that is, it must be a new technology or design before a patent can be granted. Although Jia Yueting only introduced the number of patent applications, it did not affect him to prove Letv's research and development strength from the side-seeing such a large number of patent applications, many people have sighed: such a cow?!

The second is to abide by the rules of the international business game. The Internet is an ecology. LeTV hopes to establish new rules. Intellectual property rights are also business rules. This rule has been running in developed countries for many years and has become a normal business ecology. When LeTV releases new products, the number of patents is also a demonstration of attitude: LeTV respects intellectual property rights and abides by the rules of the international business game. Only by abiding by business rules and developing towards a more advanced business ecology can we have a future. Obviously, LETV has kept up with this rhythm and laid a good foundation for its entry into the US market.

The third is to protect the intangible assets of enterprises. Letv's innovative technology is invented by enterprise employees. Letv's patent application, the patent applicant and the authorized patentee, is Letv. In Letv's huge employee system, the innovations accumulated by its employees in their work will remain in Letv's name in the form of patents, and there will be no losses due to employee turnover. Patents have become a means to effectively preserve the value of LeEco's intangible assets, while protecting the interests of LeEco's shareholders.

Fourth, the formation of patent packages, the establishment of technical barriers. 67 patents were applied for 9-channel live streaming technology, more than 110 patents were applied for CDLA, 2597 patents were applied for TV, 2307 patents were applied for mobile phones, and 833 patents were applied for electric vehicles. From these data, it is not difficult to see that LeTV has applied for a large number of patents, whether it is a product or a certain technology, hoping to fully protect its products and technological innovation through patent packages. Through such "enclosure" behavior, legal barriers can be established, the threshold for peers to enter the industry or produce the product can be raised, and the exclusive position of LETV products can be consolidated. At the same time, for some competitors who already have patent status, a large number of patents can also have the right to speak in some technologies, reduce the chance of competitors, effectively counter the suppression of competitors, and achieve the effect of checks and balances with competitors.

Letv's product launch in China showed us Letv's emphasis on patents. For many innovators, it takes a certain amount of time to accumulate patents to achieve the number of Letv, which is difficult. However, Nanjing Huaxun believes that everyone should see that the use of patents can at least play the above-mentioned role, and the use of patents is far more than that. The press conference of Letv "landing" in the United States may be telling us from another angle: what does Letv want to do when it applies for so many patents.