Influence the industrial structure and take a closer look at the patents of tens of billions of LED lighting companies

Soso LED Network News: This year, the LED lighting industry has entered a mature period. While adjusting the number and structural distribution of patents accordingly, it is also necessary to deploy reserve patents for possible alternative technologies and products. Whoever holds important patented technologies will affect the new pattern of industrial development. Among them, the patents of tens of billions of LED companies have attracted the most attention from the industry.

According to data from Southern Fortune Network, among the 44 LED concept stocks in 2015 (LED concept stocks include production and service companies listed on the domestic A-share market such as LED chips, LED packaging, LED applications, and LED peripherals.), there were 17 companies with an output value of more than 10 billion, mainly distributed in Guangdong, Shanghai, Shandong and other regions, among which Tongfang, Sanan Optoelectronics, and Goertek ranked among the top three. Next, we will focus on analyzing the patent performance of these 17 listed tens of billions LED companies to find out their gaps and characteristics.

According to statistics on April 13, 2015, LED companies with output values ​​exceeding 10 billion include:

1. The correlation coefficient between the scale of LED lighting companies and the number of patents is less than 0.4

Based on a simple correlation analysis based on the output value scale of listed companies and the number of corporate patents, the correlation coefficient is 0.399. From a statistical point of view, this means that the corporate size of listed companies and patents have a positive correlation. However, the correlation coefficient is lower than 0.4, which shows that the correlation between the two is weak, and there are cases where individual companies have larger output values ​​but fewer patents. By observing the data, it was found that among the 17 tens of billions of LED companies, four companies have less than 100 patent applications, mainly in the fields of electronic devices and lighting equipment.

In addition, the comparison found that the number of patent applications of the top five companies in terms of total output value accounted for 78.5% of the number of patent applications of the 17 companies. In other words, the phenomenon of the rich getting richer also exists in the patent applications of LED companies.

Figure: Patent application status of the top 5 companies by output value

Among the 17 LED companies, invention patent applications accounted for the proportion of total applications, the largest was 53.84%, the smallest was 5.93%, and the average ratio reached 31.38%. As the enterprises develop, the gap in the core competitiveness of tens of billions of enterprises will gradually increase.

Figure: LED lighting lighting invention patent applications as a proportion of total patent applications

From the perspective of effective inventions, the patents currently authorized and maintained by 17 companies account for a large gap in the proportion of total invention patent applications. The largest is 65.51%, the smallest is 7.14%, and the average ratio reaches 36.62%.

2. LED Lighting Patent agencies have different attitudes towards selecting patent agencies, and PK agencies are digested internally

From the search of the above 17 LED concept stock companies, it was found that only one company's patent was basically independently written internally, and there was no indication that a patent agency was entrusted. The rest of the companies use a combination of outsourcing and in-house writing.

In terms of the geographical distribution of agencies, patent agencies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the main service providers, but the agency weight of agencies in the company's location is also gradually increasing, forming a corporate patent agency selection model of "local agencies + agencies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen" services.

Regarding the characteristics of agency selection, enterprises’ choices are obviously diversified, and the degree of “specificity” is poor, showing a gradual change trend. On the basis of long-term cooperative agencies, enterprises usually choose new agencies to disperse patent agency business, and the stickiness is relatively weak.

How to choose the right agency, especially tens of billions of companies with many patents, also faces many problems. Companies constantly change agencies to choose the best service provider.

3. LED lighting business operations need to consider patent risks and build a patent layout system

Listed companies have a relatively high degree of publicity regarding their business operations, and the cost of infringement investigation and evidence collection is relatively low, making them easy targets for infringement prosecutions. Lacking necessary patent reserves, listed companies face far higher patent risks than similar unlisted companies. Therefore, strengthening patent reserves to deal with patent risks is particularly important for listed companies. Even among tens of billions of companies, the strength contrast is very obvious in terms of patent layout and distribution, highlighting shortcomings such as lack of core technology research and development and insufficient technology exploration, which directly affects future operating risks.

As future tens of billions of companies, many LED companies cannot ignore patent accumulation and layout issues in their rapid growth stage. This is not only related to the prevention of future patent risks, but also related to the improvement of corporate technological innovation and core competitiveness.

So, what patent issues should companies clarify at this stage? Wang Hua, deputy secretary-general of the LED Industry Patent Alliance, gave suggestions.

He believes that increasing patent reserves not only solves the problem of R&D investment, but also how to effectively protect R&D results will test the strength of patent drafting. Patent document writing is the secondary development of technology, which aims to fully protect the technology as much as possible and becomes a powerful weapon in dealing with litigation, licensing and technology evaluation. Larger enterprises have begun to gradually strengthen talent training in patent layout and realize patent strategic transformation.

Wang Hua also said, "Through primitive accumulation, small and medium-sized enterprises will become tens of billions of large enterprises in the future. How to carry out patent counseling from the initial stage of small and medium-sized enterprises based on current trends is particularly important for the development of strategic emerging industries such as LED. Recently, we are also relying on Beijing Junhua Intellectual Property Agency to focus on strategic emerging industries such as the LED industry and gather a team with many years of industry work experience and patent agency experience to provide high-quality patent agency services."

The current patent situation of tens of billions of LED companies has set a benchmark for many LED companies, and also revealed possible problems, such as patent layout lagging behind corporate development and difficulty in selecting service agencies. In the stage of rapid development and accumulation, companies need to strengthen the consideration of patent applications and layout, select high-quality service providers, build a complete patent system, and form core competitiveness.