LED industry rapid development, patent issues can not be ignored

In recent years, driven by the "National Semiconductor Lighting Project" plan, China's LED industry has developed rapidly. At present, China has become the fastest growing region of LED industry in the world, and is also the main manufacturing base of the global electronics industry. It has initially formed a complete LED industry chain including LED epitaxial wafers, LED chips, LED packaging and LED applications. Since 2014, the annual compound growth rate of China's LED industry has exceeded 20%, maintaining a high-speed growth trend. Benefiting from the policy support of LED lamps and the improvement of energy-saving demand, LED lamp sources are expected to further replace traditional lamp sources, thus further promoting the rapid growth of LED in the field of general lighting.

At present, China's LED industry is mainly concentrated in the field of outdoor display, advertising screen and lighting. In the next 3-5 years, with the maturity of technology and the decline in costs, LED in the field of general lighting market share will be further enhanced, and may be in automotive lighting, small spacing LED display and other fields of breakthrough, LED industry will usher in a new round of outbreak.

However, in the current rapid development of the entire industry is thriving, patent disputes are one after another. Since 2018 alone, there have been more than 10 patent disputes worldwide. In February 2018, Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Yiguang Electronics' LED products in Italy; in the same month, Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. announced that a patent involving LED packaging and heat dissipation structure of Yiguang Electronics was invalid. In court, Yiguang Electronics gave up its defense, admitted that its patent was invalid, and paid Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'s litigation costs. In March 2018, at the Frankfurt exhibition, Kaiyao in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province was reported for suspected patent infringement, resulting in being asked to rectify the booth, and the suspected infringing LED filament lamp ball was confiscated. In July 2018, Shenzhen Customs seized products suspected of patent infringement from two LED manufacturers in Jiangxi and Dongguan. These products were suspected of infringing the patent rights of Shenzhen Jiabitai Intelligent Lighting Co., Ltd. The patents involved were "a Bluetooth ball". "Bulb" utility model patent, "a Bluetooth panel light" utility model patent. In August 2018, Hiya Chemical Co., Ltd. stated that the company has obtained patent infringement compensation from Hongqi Technology and ended the patent infringement lawsuit of the two companies in Germany.

With the rapid development of the LED industry, the competition of major LED companies has gradually heated up, and patents as a relatively easy-to-use weapon, large global LED companies should not let go. With that, patent wars will also become the norm. At present, some international LED giants, such as Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Japan Asia Chemical, Philips, Osram, etc., have been using intellectual property rights as a powerful weapon, trying to exclude possible opponents from the market through strict patent layout. In the above-mentioned patent infringement disputes, China's LED companies continue to stand in the dock. As Chinese LED companies continue to gain ground in the world, patent issues will become more and more prominent. For Chinese LED companies, there is still a clear gap between large foreign companies in terms of patent accumulation and the operation of intellectual property rights, and most of the current patents are only derivative patents, and the number of core patents is small. Therefore, in the process of globalization of Chinese enterprises, the patent issue will become an issue that has to be paid attention.

Of course, Chinese LED companies are at a disadvantage in terms of patents, but this does not mean that Chinese LED companies are unable to move in the international market. Directly obtaining patent licenses or indirectly obtaining patent rights through overseas mergers and acquisitions is currently adopted by domestic companies. Policy.

In obtaining patent license, mainly through cooperation with international giants to obtain patent umbrella. Dongbei Optoelectronics has obtained the patent authorization of Osram white LED. Guoxing Optoelectronics, Jufei Optoelectronics, Ruifeng Optoelectronics and GE signed patent authorization; Super Times has obtained patent authorization related to crystal LED filament; Crystal Optoelectronics, Jufei Optoelectronics and other enterprises have obtained Toyota White LED patent authorization. The signing of patent licenses between domestic LED companies and international giants can prevent problems before they occur, and resolve some patent lawsuits that may be faced, so that companies have no worries when expanding overseas markets. However, a patent is not granted once and for all. First of all, LED technology is still in continuous development, the mainstream technology at various stages may be quite different, Chinese enterprises may spend a lot of money to obtain patent authorization in a few years will become worthless; secondly, LED patents are complex, a product may infringe a number of patent rights, only the purchase of some patents may still not rule out the possibility of infringing other patents. Therefore, obtaining patent authorization is only an expedient measure. Domestic LED enterprises should strengthen patent early warning, carry out appropriate evasive design, and accurately judge the development trend of the market, so as to maximize the benefits of obtaining authorized patents.

In addition to obtaining patent authorization, overseas mergers and acquisitions to obtain the patent rights of LED enterprises is also an effective way. The acquisition of Preh by the development crystal subsidiary is equivalent to controlling more than 750 patents owned by Preh and its cross-licensing with Cree patents, thus mastering Preh's core technologies in chips, epitaxial wafers, packaging, optical design, white light and other fields, and entering the global high-end LED industry supply chain system in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea. Through mergers and acquisitions, domestic enterprises can master the world's advanced technology, avoid some patent infringement risks, effectively reduce the risks and costs of enterprise development, and make their products more competitive.

Of course, no matter which way domestic enterprises obtain the right to use patents, enterprises need to fundamentally develop their own core technology and make their patented technology bigger and stronger. especiallyLEDEnterprises, innovation is the foundation of enterprise development, increase the development of new products, actively upgrade new products, and strive to graspLEDof the mainstream trends, by analyzingLEDThe pattern and positioning of lighting products, and continuous breakthroughs in product design, cost control and product quality, can get rid of the dilemma of being besieged on all sides on the patent battlefield.