In recent years, the demand for LED applications has continued to grow, and domestic industry development has maintained a good momentum. Starting from October 1, 2014, my country will ban the import and sale of incandescent lamps for general lighting of 60 watts and above; by October 1, 2016, my country will completely stop production and ban incandescent lamps. With the implementation of policies, the penetration rate of downstream lighting products will continue to increase in the future, and the good development of the industry is expected to continue in the next two years. With the rapid development of the industry, some companies have entered the international market, and my country has become an important production base for global LED lighting products.
In 2013, my country's LED lighting product exports reached US$6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 70%; from January to June this year, lighting product exports were US$17.67 billion, of which LED lighting product exports accounted for more than 20%. However, the export advantage of my country's LED lighting products mainly stems from lower product prices, a smaller share of the high-end market, and technical patent barriers have become a major obstacle to the development of domestic enterprises.
The number of global applications has increased sharply, and giants monopolize technology patents
As of the end of 2013, there were a total of approximately 190,000 patent applications in the global semiconductor lighting field. The earliest patents appeared in the 1960s, and the number of patent applications increased rapidly from 2000 to 2008 and 2009. This also shows that technological innovation in semiconductor lighting is in a rapid development stage.
According to industry division habits, the LED industry is generally divided into LED substrates, epitaxial chips, packaging and applications. In the entire LED industry, the packaging part has the largest number of patents (70,004), accounting for 37% of all patents; the second is the application part, with 62,904 patents, accounting for 33% of all patents; the third is the epitaxial chip part, accounting for about 15%.
At present, the technology patents of the global LED industry are basically monopolized by several industry giants in Japan, the United States, South Korea and Germany. Judging from company applications, the top 10 global patent applications are Panasonic, Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba, Canon, Sony, Kyocera, ROHM, Toyoda Gosei and Nichia Chemical. Among them, 9 are Japanese companies and 1 is a Korean company, indicating that Japan has an absolute advantage in the LED field. The patent applications of these 10 companies account for the largest number of global patent applications16%. The two key companies recognized by the industry as mastering the core LED technology are Japan's Toyoda Gosei and Nichia Chemicals. The top three companies, Panasonic, Sharp and Samsung, are mainly engaged in electronics and display. This shows to a certain extent that LED application technology is currently in a rapid development stage. In recent years, with the growth of LED applications, Samsung's epitaxial chip manufacturing has also developed rapidly, and the number of patent applications has grown rapidly.
Domestic patents are concentrated in the middle and lower reaches, and invention patents are shortcomings
By the end of 2013, mainland my country had applied for a total of 36,595 patents in the LED field. my country's patents are mainly concentrated in packaging, applications and drivers, which account for 42%, 41% and 8.5% of all patent applications respectively, while epitaxial chips and substrates are relatively small. Compared with the global situation, especially in epitaxial chips, patents account for only 7% of all patents.
From the perspective of patent types, among the patents submitted by Chinese companies, utility model and design patent applications account for a large proportion, while invention patents are a weak link. Among invention patents, there are even more deficiencies in areas such as chips and raw materials upstream of the industrial chain. In recent years, in the R&D and production of LED industry, Chinese companies have also applied for a large number of patents, but these patents are mainly distributed in light source packaging, backlight display, lamp design, etc., concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the LED industry chain, and are mainly utility model and design patents, while the proportion of invention patents is obviously smaller.
There are many reasons for this situation. On the one hand, LED technology first originated abroad. Leading foreign companies have made a large number of patent layouts in core technologies such as phosphors and chips, and the giants have formed interest alliances through cross-licensing. It is more difficult for latecomers to break through. On the other hand, the vast majority of domestic LED companies are small and medium-sized enterprises, which lack awareness of intellectual property protection. Their products are mainly mid-to-low-end, and homogeneous competition is serious. Price war is the main means of competition. As a result of vicious competition, product prices have dropped rapidly, which has also dampened the enthusiasm of enterprises. Some capable domestic lighting companies would rather choose to focus on foreign markets than participate in the domestic melee. Due to the lack of core technology patents, Chinese companies have to purchase large quantities of foreign chip products in overseas trade.
Despite this, in foreign trade, there is still no way to escape the risks of intellectual property rights. Some foreign institutions or groups have regarded intellectual property rights asAs an important means of trade protection, such as the "337 investigation" initiated by the U.S. International Trade Commission against Chinese LED companies, it is one of the most important means to use intellectual property disputes to prevent or restrict Chinese companies or their products from entering the U.S. market. Once the U.S. International Trade Commission issues a general or limited exclusion order for the products involved, the products involved produced by the relevant companies will not be exported to the U.S. market.
Strengthening independent research and development and guiding patent layout
If Chinese LED companies want to enter the high-end product field and consolidate market share in the future, strengthening independent research and development is an insurmountable link. How to break through the industry's technical difficulties and patent barriers has become a key issue that domestic companies have to face.
First of all, domestic enterprises must be aware of intellectual property rights and base their development on innovation. With the development of domestic industries, my country's intellectual property laws and regulations system is gradually improving, and the demographic dividend is gradually disappearing. The past extensive competition model of imitating each other and competing for manpower and price will be unsustainable. Enterprises need to be aware of intellectual property rights from the beginning. In addition to relying on independent research and development, taking an innovative development path, and not infringing on other people's intellectual property rights, they must also use intellectual property rights as a means of self-protection. Headmy country's upcoming 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress will review proposals such as the establishment of special intellectual property courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the future, the legal environment for domestic intellectual property rights will be more optimized, and intellectual property rights will become an important part of future enterprise development and construction.
Secondly, do a good job in research, analysis and layout of intellectual property rights, and strive to gain the upper hand. Rely on the government or industry alliances to guide the domestic patent layout at the macro level of the industry. Relying on specialized intellectual property agencies to search and analyze the patent situation at home and abroad, sort out the patent situation in major exporting countries, and then help enterprises to carry out targeted bypass designs and further patent supplements. Relying solely on enterprises to protect some patent structures independently will have relatively limited strength and scope. It is necessary to integrate domestic resources, strengthen the linkage between the upstream and downstream industries, and improve the patent management and utilization capabilities of LED companies in order to respond to domestic and foreign patent risks in a timely manner and promote the coordinated development of the LED industry.
Thirdly, encourage mergers and reorganizations among enterprises to quickly become bigger and stronger. After several years of development, my country's LED industry has given birth to a number of large companies with certain international influence. In recent years, the integration trend of the domestic LED industry has been obvious., advantageous resources are gathered among industry giants, and through mergers, acquisitions, mutual shareholdings, etc., domestic companies can quickly break down technology and patent barriers and achieve industrialization breakthroughs. For example, chip leader Sanan Optoelectronics acquired Luminus Devices of the United States for US$22 million through a wholly-owned subsidiary, and also obtained 151 patents owned by it around the world, making Sanan Optoelectronics' global layout increasingly complete.
ANNA