Innovation is the first driving force for development, and protecting intellectual property rights is protecting innovation. In the field of home appliances, Haier is the company with the most overseas invention patents in China, with more than 11,000 patent applications overseas. While establishing an early warning system for intellectual property risks, Haier accurately protects patents with core competitiveness, and explores the linkage of technologies, patents, and standards to enhance the ability to realize patent assets, making intellectual property an important tool for stable development and value appreciation of enterprises.
Global layout high-quality patents
"The world is our R&D department." Zhang Ruimin, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Haier Group, summed up Haier's innovative ideas in this way. Haier should link global resources to provide users with the best solutions.
Relying on the world's Top Ten R&D centers, Haier has a global patent layout for original technologies. In terms of organization, Haier has established a Global Innovation Committee and a Global Patent Management Committee to achieve global collaborative innovation, jointly carry out global patent layout, and unified global patent asset management, global patent risk management and control, patent and research and development docking.
According to Wang Binhou, Director of Patent Standards of Haier Group, Haier has applied for more than 57,000 patents worldwide, covering 28 countries and regions, including more than 34,000 invention patents, accounting for more than 60%, and more than 11,000 pieces overseas patent applications.
In the previous WIPO-CNIPA Award for Chinese Outstanding Patented Invention & Industrial Design, the total number of Haier Gold Awards has reached nine, ranked first in the industry. At the same time, Haier has accumulated more than 50 high-value patent portfolios in key core technology fields such as smart home, preservation technology, partition washing, wireless transmission, and magnetic refrigeration, with about 800 core patents and about 300 PCT international patent applications, becoming Haier’s strong support for huge market competitiveness.
Haier has 173 patents on double drum washing machines and 48 PCT international patent applications, among which basic patents won the 21st The WIPO-CNIPA Award for Chinese Outstanding Patented Invention & Industrial Design. Thanks to this patent portfolio, Haier’s double drum washing machine has accounted for 76.7% of China’s high-end washing machine market (unit price over 10,000 yuan) in the past three years, with a cumulative sales revenue of 2 billion yuan and an added profit of 450 million yuan, have entered international markets such as Germany and France as Haier’s owned brand products.
Manage and control overseas intellectual property risks
It is understood that Haier regards intellectual property rights as a significant management content from decision-making departments to production and operation. In many business decisions, especially in overseas affairs, intellectual property rights owns one-vote veto power.
In terms of consumer electronics exports, Haier’s competitors are mostly overseas companies, often patent giants. At the same time, there are numerous patent alliances and patent standards in the field of home appliances. There are also a large number of non-patent implementation entities (NPE) in North America. However, the domestic upstream industry chain in this field is incomplete, and almost all core components are supplied overseas. To this end, Haier focuses on the early warning of intellectual property risks, the transfer and avoidance of externally imported intellectual property risks, and patent cost control.
In order to avoid encountering intellectual property disputes in overseas markets, Haier conducts searches and investigations on patents in related fields around the world, and conducts hierarchical and classified monitoring based on the litigation status of the searched patents and whether they are included in the standards.
At the same time, Haier has established various intellectual property management systems, including patent quality control system, internal patent infringement risk control system, external patent risk control system, overseas patent claim dispute handling system, overseas intellectual property risk firewall, etc., and dynamically adjust and optimize these systems in accordance with the changes of internal and external environment.
At present, China has deployed and promoted a series of reform, issued a series of major policies, actions, and plans, implemented a strict intellectual property protection system, and resolutely punished violations of legitimate rights and interests, especially infringements of intellectual property rights. In 2019, the overall score of social satisfaction with intellectual property protection in China was 78.98 points, a significant increase of 15.29 points from 2012, which greatly stimulated innovation vitality.
Regarding the protection of intellectual property rights in the manufacturing sector in the future, Haier Group and industry insiders suggest: First, the government will introduce more policies to encourage enterprise innovation, and increase the cultivation of high-value patented technologies involving green, wisdom, scenarios, ecology, and overseas patents. Second, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, solve the difficulties of “difficult proof, low compensation, and long cycle” in the process of enterprise rights protection, and create a more harmonious business environment; increase the cultivation and development of patent operation capabilities, and policy support to promote the development of patent operations and realize the value of patents; third, to strengthen the extended protection of trademarks. Enterprises start brand promotion and use after the trademark is registered. However, at the time, many newly established enterprises have used the previous corporate brand (i.e. trademark) as the trade name, which has caused a significant negative impact on the companies that registered this trademark before.
