As an emerging and potentially huge industry, LED lighting is receiving widespread attention around the world, and its development prospects are also affected by many factors. Due to the huge role of patent technology in the development of LEDs and its unique patent distribution, patent transfer, authorization and disputes will greatly affect the future development of the LED industry.
The core patents of LED lighting technology are basically controlled by several foreign companies, such as Japan's Nichia, Toyota Synthetic, Toshiba, Lumileds, Cree, and Osram in Germany. These companies use their core patents to adopt a horizontal (simultaneous access to multiple countries) and vertical (continuous improvement of design, follow-up applications) expansion methods, and a rigorous patent network is deployed worldwide.
For the latecomers of the LED industry in Taiwan, China, and South Korea, although the LED industry has already had a certain scale, its development in the patent technology has been greatly restricted by patents. This situation is in Taiwan, China. The performance is most outstanding. However, these regions, especially those in Taiwan and South Korea, have made some innovations in technology, and have made some progress in securing authorization. The patent pattern has also changed quietly.
It is expected that in the next few years, the transfer, authorization and disputes of international patents will show the following characteristics and trends:
1. NICHIA is still the main sponsor of technology transfer, authorization and litigation
Due to its dominance in patented LED blue chip and white LED technology, Nichia will continue to dominate in patent transfer, licensing and litigation in the coming years. Although Osram-based European and American companies have a positive attitude toward technology transfer authorization, subject to patent restrictions, the dominant direction of patent licensing is still determined by Nichia.
From the number of authorizations and disputes, Nichia dominates about 60% of all authorizations and disputes, followed by Osram. This situation will not change much in recent years.
Major LED manufacturers patent authorization and dispute status map:
2, Nichia's external authorization will continue to increase
In terms of patent licensing, European and American companies have always been more active in Japanese companies. As companies such as Osram and Lumileds increase their technology patents and increase their licenses to Taiwanese and Korean companies, companies such as Nichia will accelerate their external licensing efforts in their own interests. In particular, in the case of a decline in profits such as Nichia and TG in 2005, patent licensing or commissioned processing will be a very worthwhile option.
In addition, the possibility of technological breakthroughs in South Korea and Taiwanese companies or the authorization of other companies to avoid Nichia patent litigation has increased significantly. In the case that patent litigation cannot restrict Taiwanese companies from continuing to compete for market space, authorized production will also be the best choice for Japanese LED companies.
Nichia intends to open the patent license, and will focus on the downstream packaging factories with large capacity, and will give priority to enterprises that have not obtained relevant patents. Taiwan enterprises will be the focus.
3. Mutual authorization will be further increased
Nichia's technological monopoly ability is steadily declining, and its ability to file lawsuits against chip makers such as Taiwan and South Korea has gradually weakened. In addition, as these manufacturers gradually develop unique patented technologies, some of the unique patents will also bring greater product quality enhancements to patent monopolies such as Nichia, and the possibility of mutual authorization between these companies and companies such as Nichia is gradually strengthened. .
At present, the main technical threat Nichia faces is mainly from Taiwan. For example, Taiwan's ITO technology can not make much adjustments in the chip manufacturing process, but has considerable advantages in mass production yield and cost control. If it is applied to Nichia's chip production, it can immediately increase the brightness of its products by 30% to 50%. Nichia is expected to be quite attractive in improving the brightness of the product when the related material technology cannot be effectively broken. Therefore, this type of technology can reduce infringement litigation disputes, and can also serve as a bargaining chip for mutual authorization with Nichia.
4. Domestic companies face patent disputes, but still have a chance to break through
China's LED technology started relatively late, and it is in a relatively passive situation in LED patents. The development situation is not optimistic. As the scale of the company continues to expand, it may be involved in special disputes due to the attention of major international companies.
It is generally expected that there will be no large-scale lawsuits against Chinese enterprises within two years, but in the long run, domestic enterprises have great concerns. With the expansion of domestic LED export scale and the reduction of patent litigation in Taiwan and South Korea, it is not ruled out that Nichia and other large companies will shift the focus of patent litigation to domestic enterprises.
However, China's LED industry still has the opportunity to make breakthroughs, breaking this passive patent pattern, mainly in the following two points:
China has certain advantages in the patent of composite substrates, and has the opportunity to transform into a stronger competitiveness.
The white light general lighting chip technology and the existing technology may be quite different. At present, it is basically at the starting line with large foreign companies. As long as the opportunity is seized, it is possible to obtain an active position.
If in these two aspects, domestically obtain practical patent technology, domestic enterprises will be more likely to obtain authorization from foreign patent monopoly enterprises, or even mutual authorization, to change the passive situation of domestic patents.
In addition, China has a technology branch in each technical field that has applied for more or more foreign applications, especially in the upstream industry, which has some peripheral invention patents. This will provide a bargaining chip for China's possible patent litigation in the future.
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