How does a CTO establish a corresponding overall view of intellectual property at different development stages of an enterprise?

Recently, with the release of the full text of the new "Patent Law" and the release of the newly revised "Copyright Law", the country has paid increasing attention to intellectual property rights, and the business environment for enterprises has become increasingly optimized.

As a CTO, do you know how to handle intellectual property issues at each stage of enterprise development?

#For enterprises, whether they are in the start-up stage or the mature stage, they are inseparable from the blessing of intellectual property rights. Whether it is to gain market competitiveness through intellectual property rights or to use intellectual property rights to avoid legal risks, intellectual property rights have become a practical issue that every enterprise committed to long-term development must face. At different stages of enterprise development, corresponding intellectual property strategies should be formulated according to the characteristics of enterprise development, so that enterprises can tailor their strategies to obtain comprehensive intellectual property protection and maximize intellectual property benefits in market competition.

▶ The following is a review of the classic content of the 51CTO series of live broadcast programs:

## 1 Start-up period

Labels defined for companies at this stage: startups, young people, latecomers. Companies in the start-up stage generally have small production scale, low market share, simple corporate organizational structure, and low profitability. The primary goal of the company at this stage is survival, and other management processes must make way for sales and business models. In this special situation, intellectual property rights have been ignored by many companies or even given up voluntarily. At this stage, the main value of intellectual property rights is to lay a solid foundation and play a mainly protective role. Therefore, when the company is in the defensive stage during its start-up period, the company should lay out core patent applications. Among them, we need to pay attention to avoid the following two risk points: ▶ Infringement risk-the R&D products have potential unknown infringement risks; ▶Infringement risk-the patent application is not timely, resulting in the risk of infringement.

Anhui Wanyan Company-China's first VCD machine manufacturer

Since there is no patent protection, Wanyan launched the first batch of 1,000 This VCD machine was almost bought as a prototype by various home appliance manufacturers at home and abroad, becoming the target of their dissection and the "reliance" in the future competition for the VCD market.

Wanyan Company had no choice but to make wedding dresses for others while facing the new product it had worked so hard to develop. Without patent protection, Anhui Wanyan Company, which launched China's first VCD machine, lost its market and business opportunities.

2 Growth Stage

Labels defined for enterprises at this stage: emerging, famous, and rising stars.

Companies at this stage generally have their business models and profit models verified to a certain extent after market elimination and primitive accumulation. Many companies already have a certain market size and have found their development direction and survival model. The company begins to enter the fast lane. At this time, there will be more collisions and choices in management models, internal processes, and business sales. Intellectual property issues will be mentioned at this stage, but they are also most likely to be generalized, thus missing the best opportunity for companies to reserve or guide the industry.

This stage is in the consolidation stage. The main value of intellectual property rights is to dig deep into core values ​​and expand appropriately.

Risk points that need to be avoided: ▶ Risk of infringement - focus on the market, but ignore the simultaneous layout of intellectual property rights.

Xinjiang United Machinery-China's leading combine harvester

The "Xinjiang-2" combine harvester produced by Xinjiang United Machinery (Group) Co., Ltd. The machine is popular in China, with a domestic market share of up to 70%, and has created a miracle of producing tens of thousands of units for three consecutive years.

However, due to the lack of awareness of patent protection among business operators, the company has spent more than 7 million yuan on continuous research and development to improve the "Xinjiang-2" in the past 12 years. There are many technological innovations, but not a single patent has been applied for. Due to the good sales situation of the "Xinjiang-2" market, a variety of clones identical to the "Xinjiang-2" soon appeared on the market, thus squeezing out the market share of thousands of real "Xinjiang-2" units.

3 Stable period

The label defined for the enterprise at this stage: mature model, stable profitability, and sustained growth.

Enterprises in the stable period have generally found their own position in the industry, their business and profit models have been relatively stable, and their management models have been basically completed.

The intellectual property system has generally entered the scope of the enterprise's management system. Using intellectual property to gain market share and avoid legal risks are key considerations at this stage.

This stage of intellectual property rights is the most important stage of both offense and defense, and its manifestation is the most direct and obvious.

Among the risks that need to be avoided: ▶ Infringement risk-if the IPO application is finalized, there will be patent infringement litigation. Destinies vary.

SiLijie VS Jingfeng Mingyuan

On July 19, 2019, Hangzhou Silicon Lijie Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. (SiLijie Company) Shanghai Jingfeng Mingyuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (Jingfeng Mingyuan Company) filed a lawsuit with the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court for infringement of its invention patent, and the case was filed.

On July 23, the Listing Committee of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Board issued an announcement that due to litigation matters involving Jingfeng Mingyuan Company after the announcement of the Listing Committee Review Meeting, the Listing Committee Review Meeting was cancelled. The review of the issuance and listing application of Jingfeng Mingyuan Company became the first case on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

Haoda Electronics VS Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Wuxi Haoda Electronics’ Science and Technology Innovation Board IPO in 2021 It was accepted on June 30. At that time, it had a pending patent infringement lawsuit with industry giant Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. More than two months later, in September 2021, Murata Manufacturing once again launched a patent infringement lawsuit, claiming that Haoda Electronics manufactured, sold and promised to sell a total of five types of filters that caused infringement against it.

Based on its strong patent layout, Haoda Electronics successfully passed the three rounds of inquiries of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Board Listing Committee, becoming a case in which complaints were filed.

4 Rapid Development Period

The label defined for the enterprise at this stage: intensive cultivation and moderate balance.

Enterprises in the sustainable development stage have generally been restricted in certain areas and have even begun to enter the second half of the parabola. Various persistence and innovation within the enterprise will form fierce conflicts and collisions. Therefore, at this stage, corporate intellectual property rights are already in the integration stage.

Risk points that need to be avoided: ▶ Frequent infringement lawsuits - when products are launched into other countries’ markets, they face potential unknown infringement risks.

Xiaomi VS Ericsson

In 2014, Xiaomi encountered "Waterloo" in India, and "Xiaomi was prohibited from selling, promoting, manufacturing and selling in the Indian market. Import related products that are suspected of infringing Ericsson's patents, and require Xiaomi and its local e-commerce partners in India to temporarily stop selling the patented products involved in the lawsuit filed by Ericsson."

Since 2015, Xiaomi has successively acquired 31 wireless communication patents from Broadcom, 332 U.S. patents from Intel, and 1,500 patents from Microsoft. In addition to directly purchasing patents, Xiaomi is also actively developing its own patent layout.

5 Cutting-edge period

In the current era of sudden changes, many companies are in the cutting-edge stage, and the boundaries of technological competition between companies will be blurred. We call this It is the strategic guidance stage and will have some impact on the development of our enterprise.

We need to pay attention to avoid the following two risk points: ▶ Mutual litigation, licensing, and reconciliation; ▶ The game between big powers and the competition between famous enterprises.

Huawei VS Verizon

Since the second half of 2020, Huawei has begun to be affected on the chip side, and overseas countries have cut off supplies to Huawei. Chip technology ultimately led to the inability to mass-produce 5G Kirin chips. Huawei is currently consuming limited 5G chip resources and is unable to import 5G chips. Its mobile phone business has begun to decline significantly. The latest data shows that Huawei mobile phones have fallen out of the top five in the world.

Huawei is a leader in the 5G field and has also applied for a large number of patents in the 4G era. In 2021, Huawei sued Verizon, the largest operator in the United States, for infringement and demanded compensation of US$1 billion, involving 12 patent rights. The two parties have reached a settlement out of court, and Huawei has won.

As technology managers, we not only need to understand the intellectual property "risk" points of the enterprise at each stage and make early predictions, but we also need to actively explore and lay out the enterprise's intellectual property blueprint so that we can Businesses stand out from the competition.

▲Live broadcast highlights

So in today's era of rapid economic development, intellectual property rights are of great significance to the development of enterprises. The establishment and improvement of enterprises The intellectual property protection system is an issue that must be considered and implemented. Only in this way can the company's intellectual property rights be better protected from infringement, and the intellectual property rights be better used to encourage employee innovation, reduce product costs, increase corporate profits, prevent theft of research and development results, and enable the company to occupy a leading position in the fierce competition. The highest point of patents makes companies in an invincible position in a complex economic environment. ​

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