Work Wear: China's new storage and semiconductor forces must face upcoming patent issues

1. Daddy: Patent issues related to development memory in the mainland;

Recent patent issues concerning the development of the memory industry in mainland China have once again become a focus of media attention.

The reason is simple. Every overseas competitor evaluates the development memory of the mainland and will list the patent as one of the indispensable obstacles, especially certain counterparts in Taiwan.

Recently, because Mei Guang sued Fujian Jinhua, the issue will be brought to the media attention. Will patents really become an obstacle to the development of the memory industry in the mainland?

The old man thinks not!

First of all, it is not a patent infringement but a commercial secret that Mei Guang sues Fujian Jinhua.

It is somewhat sensational to say that the international memory giants have initiated patent warfare against Chinese memory vendors.

Second, none of the Chinese memory vendors advertised overseas patents that did not respect international companies.

The patent issues facing China's development of the memory industry can fully draw on the past experience of the Chinese communications industry.

To date, Qualcomm has more than 150 patent licensing companies in China.

Xiaomi has already signed patent licensing agreements with companies including Nokia, Microsoft, and Dolby, making preparations for entering overseas markets.

Several years ago, when talking about the entry of mainland mobile phone brands into overseas markets, patents will be regarded as the most critical obstacles. Nowadays, Huawei, OPPO, VIVO, Xiaomi, etc., have flourished in overseas markets, and it is not because patents impede mainland brands from overseas. Expansion.

Although there are more and more patent disputes in overseas markets, these are all normal. The trend is that mainland brands and overseas patent owners are cooperating more and more in disputes. In turn, the number of patents for mainland mobile phone brands is also increasing rapidly.

Not only has the patent not become a bottleneck for Chinese mobile phone brands to enter the overseas market, but it has also promoted the investment in their own core technologies and increased the number of patents.

In the negotiation of patent licensing for Chinese mobile phone brands, the role of the National Development and Reform Commission played an important role.

As the national anti-monopoly enforcement authority, the National Development and Reform Commission's price inspection bureau will not participate in the negotiation of patent licensing of enterprises, but it has played an effective role in the supervision of fairness, impartiality, and non-discrimination in patent licensing, and has become a fair patent for Chinese mobile phone brands. Authorized effective protection umbrella.

In order to participate in international competition, Chinese companies must, of course, pay attention to international rules and attach importance to patent rights. The prerequisite is fairness, impartiality, and non-discrimination.

The Chinese telecommunications industry has done this, and the Chinese storage industry can do the same.

The National Development and Reform Commission has played a key role in the licensing of patents in the Chinese telecommunications industry, and it can also play a role in patent licensing in the Chinese memory industry.

Not long ago, he participated in the National Development and Reform Commission's "Guidelines on Conducting Prices in the Field of Standard Essential Patents" (draft). Although the draft has not yet been formally released, it shows that the NDRC has already noticed the issue of universal patent licensing faced by Chinese companies in the internationalization process.

On the one hand, the state emphasizes that Chinese enterprises attach importance to the issue of intellectual property rights. On the other hand, they also need to protect Chinese companies in obtaining fair treatment due to patent authorization.

Third, patent authorization is a gradual process.

Saying that China's development of memory patents will not be an obstacle does not mean that it will immediately obtain the authority of overseas giants at the beginning of development.

As in the communications industry, it is certainly a gradual process for companies to obtain authorization from overseas patent owners.

Regardless of Changjiang Storage, Hefei Changxin or Fujian Jinhua, the development memory is still in the stage of R&D and construction. It is impossible to obtain patent authorization or negotiate patent right now.

In the same way, free patent applications also require a process. These companies will also continue to apply for patents during their own research and pay attention to the promotion of their own intellectual property rights.

Upgrading its own core technologies and licensing competitor patents will always be a parallel strategy for latecomers to catch up with their leaders.

Saying that China's development of the memory industry does not attach importance to intellectual property rights is a misunderstanding of China. It is said that patents will become an obstacle to China's development of the memory industry, which is ignorance of the industry. (Laowei WeChat public number: laoyaoshow)

2. China's new storage and semiconductor forces must face upcoming patent issues.

In 2017, when prices for DRAM and 3D NAND increased wildly, memory became hot. As China's three memory camps gradually began to produce transcripts, Chinese companies will undoubtedly become a new force in the semiconductor storage market in the near future.

However, when Chinese companies begin to produce storage products, they will face the inspection of the market and the subsequent patent disputes.

The DRAM plans of the two major camps of Jinhua, Hefei and Hefei, have progressed from silence to gradually. Fujian Jinhua has an alliance with UMC's strategy, and the Hefei camp also has Beijing Zhaoyi's innovative cooperation in the development of 19nm process DRAM technology. Both camps expect that the chip will begin at the end of this year, causing high concern in the market and whether it will Memory vendors pose a threat.

At the end of 2017, Micron has sued Jinhua. On December 4, the former filed a civil lawsuit in the Northern Federal Court of California under the "Defend Trade Secrets Act" and the "Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organisation Act" to sue the Taiwan foundry company UMC (UMC). ) and Fujian Jinhua stole its trade secrets and other misconduct. A Micron spokesperson confirmed the lawsuit and said: "Micron is actively protecting its global intellectual property and will use all available legal weapons to resolve all misappropriation."

The ICInsights president and CEO Bill McClean said that he does not know how Chinese companies can produce memory chips without touching patents owned by Samsung, Hynix and Micron. When these Chinese companies started selling memory chips, it was time for major lawsuits to come. He said that once they start production, Samsung, Hynix and Micron will have the opportunity to reverse engineer these products and look for evidence sufficient to prove that their patents have been violated.

Recently, Li Peixi, general manager of Taiwan's South Asia Branch, said that if these Chinese companies do not get technical licenses, it is difficult to make competitive products. If it is a product that infringes a patent, it may not even be used by local brand companies because it may face many legal issues in the future. He emphasized that with his many years of experience working in the semiconductor industry, most of the products that have not been technically authorized to produce are the companies that are operating in a formal manner. In order to avoid possible future troubles, most of them are afraid to use them and dare to use them. Most of them are small-scale "cunning companies."

Li Peixi's extreme view holds that China's independent R&D memory cannot influence the market in the short term. He said that from the perspective of manufacturing and R&D, the latter's autonomous storage technology R&D plans cannot be made competitive products in the short term without the authorization of external technology.

Therefore, although China’s storage power is rising, Li Peixi said that he still does not feel that he has a particularly new threat to the mainland competitors.

In recent years, South Asia Branch has actively cultivated the mainland market. Currently, mainland customers account for as much as 30% of the total revenue. Asked whether it was possible for Nan Yake to align with the mainland manufacturers, Li Peiying's reply was: "I didn't even think about it!"

Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the China Mobile Phone Alliance, once emphasized that with the gradual mass production of China's memory industry, the patent war will surely erupt. However, it must be said that China will therefore be limited and not absolute. The key is to enhance its core technology. In any case, not only the storage sector, patents are the issues that the rising Chinese semiconductor companies must immediately address. (proofreading / Xiaoqiu)

3. Amazon's new patent was questioned. The electric vehicle drone charging was very "science fiction";

According to TechCrunch, e-commerce giant Amazon’s recently filed patent may address the "age anxiety" of electric vehicle owners. According to the patent, the new product is a drone carrying an electric car battery charger. They can be any Cars on the road provide services and carry enough power to help the car support the nearest charging station.

However, this technique has been questioned a lot and it sounds a bit like science fiction. There is a voice that the power management of drones themselves is tricky. In addition, they have limited flight time and can only deliver lighter cargoes. In fact, ensuring that the drones have sufficient power and providing support for electric vehicles within their range of flight is inherently challenging. This is not the only obstacle to the realization of this technology. The Amazon patent also describes a roof docking station where the drone can land to connect with the vehicle and provide power while the car continues to follow its route. This means that to achieve this goal, either need to adjust the aftermarket, or there is support from the car manufacturer.

But there is also a voice that believes that the technology has great potential, especially after the popularity of electric vehicle and drone delivery services in the future. Science and Technology Daily

4. The old man's new equipment? Canon's latest optical patent announcement

On January 12th, the US patent rankings showed that Japan’s Canon Inc. had won the third largest number of patents in 2017. Recently, Canon announced a new optical design patent covering multiple lenses. These include EF15mmf/4, EF50mmf/1.8, EF85mmf/1.4 (non-listed EF85mmf.1.4LIS), EF85mmf/1.8, EF100mmf/2, and EF-M9.5mmf/4 without reverse.