The dispute over patents is the dispute over market share. When the competition for new energy market share is becoming increasingly heated, the intellectual property litigation of new energy enterprises is also constantly upgrading, and the scuffles are all over the world.

The development history of new energy enterprises can also be said to be a history of patent battle.

The current "patent war" is more like a market lens in another dimension. When the competition in the new energy market begins to heat up, the disputes over intellectual property rights also follow suit and begin to increase.

Whether it is photovoltaic enterprises, lithium batteries or new energy vehicles, intellectual property patent disputes occur frequently, and half of new energy enterprises are involved. The list is getting longer and longer, including many head enterprises.

From 2019, Han Hua, an established overseas photovoltaic company, reported Longji and Jingke in the United States, Australia, Germany and other places on Q-CELLS, to now Trina Solar, Ates, Jingao technology, Zhengtai Xinneng, Ningde era, cen, Geely, GOODWAY, etc., patent disputes have occurred one after another, affecting many links in the industrial chain.

The competition for intellectual property rights is an extension of market competition, and it is also a projection of the gradual expansion of the market and the increasing incentive of competition. Building a technology patent "moat" has become an important guarantee for the company's life and death breakthrough and continuous growth.

An intellectual property expert from a leading new energy enterprise told Global Zero carbon that more and more action of a patent show that the competition among domestic new energy enterprises has become white-hot, now everyone wants to seize more market share, such as overseas markets with higher profits. In this process, the patent dispute is the market share dispute.

Another intellectual property expert also said that for enterprises wishing to go to sea, they have to face competition not only from domestic enterprises but also from overseas enterprises. These overseas enterprises often have longer development time and better patent coverage. Trade WallAnti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations in the base are only the first step, while the second step is to compete for the heights of intellectual property rights.

A lawsuit will probably lead to several results such as reconciliation, patent cross-licensing, compensation, or prohibition of sale. The latter two more severe results will be a big blow to the market share of competitors.

01 lithium battery: head enterprise launches main attack

on the "patent battlefield" in the field of lithium batteries, Ningde era launched a major attack.

In terms of the loading capacity of power batteries in the first half of this year, Ningde era firmly ranked first in the world, and the total loading capacity of enterprises from the second to the fifth was the same.

However, the biggest competitive advantage in Ningde era is the intellectual property barrier built by relying on a large amount of research and development investment, accumulating a large number of core basic patents, and utilizing the advantages of technology and personnel.

However, with more and more new energy market players, it is bound to have a certain impact on the market share of Ningde era. Therefore, Ningde era launched many action of a patent just to keep its market competition ahead.

Speaking of this, we have to mention the "old enemy" of Ningde era and Sinochem airlines ".

The feud between Sinochem and Ningde era began in July, 2021. at that time, Ningde era successively mentioned "positive pole piece and battery", "explosion-proof device", "flow collecting component and battery", the total amount of compensation for five items, including "lithium ion battery" and "power battery top cover structure and power battery", is more than 0.6 billion yuan action of a patent.

Therefore, the patent dispute between new energy enterprises is also regarded as a common means of sniping competitors' IPO.

However, this month, Ningde era once again filed action for infringement of patent with Sinochem. The claim amount was as high as 92.3 million yuan, equivalent to one third of the annual net profit of Sinochem, which also continued to upgrade the patent dispute between the two sides.

Source: CALB official website

the patent involved in this lawsuit is a utility model patent applied in 2017, which mainly protects a top cover structure of lithium battery.

According to statistics, so far, Ningde era has launched five action of a patent related to the shell of Sinochem airlines. Both sides have two defeats and two wins, and the latest one has not yet been declared. On action of a patent of the other two positive and negative films, Ningde era won the case in the first trial, but the second trial was revoked by the supreme law.

According to previous reports in 21st Century Economic Report, in the industry's view, the fuse of patent disputes is mainly due to the gradual growth of innovation and innovation airlines "robbing" the Ningde era, including Weilai, Xiaopeng, important customers including Guangzhou Automobile ai'an.

It is understood that as a rising star, Sinochem has improved its market share and technical strength in recent years. According to the annual report, in 2023, the operating income of CEN from mainland China was 26.353 billion yuan, up. In the first half of 2024, the number of battery-mounted vehicles in China and innovation airlines increased by 3 year-on-year.4.6 percent, the growth rate is about 5 percent age points higher than that of Ningde era.

However, according to the semi-annual report of 2024 released by Ningde era, the operating income of Ningde era in the first half of the year was 166.767 billion yuan, down year on year.

Lawyer Fu Conglong of Zhejiang Ningbo law firm believes that, "No matter who wins or wins in the Ningde era or the action of a patent of Sinochem, I think it is important for China's new energy industry, the intellectual property industry plays a great role in promoting and is also in line with the general direction of China's 40-year industrial transformation and upgrading."

02 photovoltaic: TOPCon technology disputes continue

in the field of solar photovoltaic, patent dispute has become a common phenomenon.

It is reported that China's patent applications in the field of solar energy have surged in recent years. Shen Changyu, director of the State Intellectual Property Office, once introduced that by the end of last year, in terms of solar cells, China currently has 126400 patent applications worldwide, ranking first.

On January this year, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference that the number of international patent applications submitted by Chinese applicants through the Patent Cooperation Treaty has ranked first in the world for four consecutive years.

This also shows that after a long struggle with overseas photovoltaic enterprises, the patent consciousness of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises is bursting out.

However, the rapid development and technological upgrading in the field of new energy and the large overlap of patents applied by different enterprises are also one of the reasons leading to the surge of patent disputes.

Recently, the action of a patent storm of Trina Solar and Artes, two photovoltaic giants, has attracted much attention.

According to industry sources, the claiming rights are Trina Solar, which has a large number of TOPCon technology patents, while Artes-related patents are few. Artes has a tough attitude, saying there is no infringement problem. If Artes goods are found to be infringing by the court, they will face multiple difficulties.

Up to now, Trina Solar has applied for more than 4,000 patents and more than 2,000 authorized patents. The number of invention patents ranks first in Jiangsu province and ranks first in the industry.

According to industry insiders, the current situation of solar energy patents is that the core patents of TOPCon battery technology are divided by Jingke, Jingao and Trina. The three enterprises authorize each other and share patents. At the same time, these three companies also took the top three in the global photovoltaic module shipping list in the first half of 2024, leaving their former rivals behind.

The industry believes that Trina Solar advocates customs to seize or seize overseas market share. The two were once "allies", but now they are in dispute.

In addition to the above two enterprises, at the beginning of this month, Jingao technology also confirmed to the media that, we have raised action for infringement of patent to the CPC Munich chamber on Chint Xinneng Technology Co., Ltd. and several companies of Chint Solar Energy Technology in Europe, the latter is accused of infringing one of the European patents named "solar cell" EP2787541 B1. This patent also involves TOPCon battery technology.

Jingao technology and Zhengtai Xinneng are both the top 10 well-known enterprises in the world photovoltaic module shipping. According to the global Infolink shipping list released in the first half of 2024 photovoltaic module, Jingao technology ranked second, Chint Xinneng ranked sixth, up two places and one place respectively compared with 2023.

Disputes over patents of domestic new energy enterprisesThe "war" has been burned abroad, which once again proves the white-hot degree of domestic enterprises' competition for overseas market share.

This year, intellectual property patent infringement Wars in photovoltaic field have occurred frequently, and many head enterprises have been involved. Building a technology patent "moat" has become an important guarantee for the continuous growth of enterprises.

03 new energy vehicles: creating a new high amount of intellectual property compensation

behind the rapid development of China's new energy automobile industry is the support of patented technology.

At present, China is the largest market for new energy vehicles. At the same time, the number of global effective patents of the top ten key enterprises in China's new energy vehicle sales volume has exceeded 100000, and it is growing rapidly year by year.

When it comes to patent disputes in the field of new energy vehicles, the most famous one should be Geely's prosecution of GOODWAY cases of car infringement of intellectual property rights.

On the evening of June 14 this year, the public number of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court issued the "(2023) supreme legal knowledge people's final No. 1590 civil judgment on the case of new energy vehicle chassis technology secrets infringement", showing that the final plaintiff Geely Fang Sheng sued, if GOODWAY parties lose the lawsuit, they need to compensate Geely for about 0.64 billion yuan.

The Supreme Court defined the infringement of GOODWAY as "infringement of organized, planned and large-scale infringement of technological secrets". From 2016 to 2018, GOODWAY and affiliated companies stole Geely's chassis technology secrets and applied for some patents through nearly 40 retired employees of Geely subsidiaries.

In addition, the supreme law found that the evidence provided by party GOODWAY was not sufficient to refute the fact that it violated all the technical secrets involved in the case. All three models of GOODWAY EX series infringed the technical secrets involved by Geely.

This is the first major case of new energy vehicle technology secrets. The compensation of 0.64 billion yuan set a record of compensation for intellectual property infringement litigation in China. The symbolic significance of this case lies in its own reference significance for intellectual property infringement litigation.

However, GOODWAY motor has filed for bankruptcy reorganization on last October. At present, the book balance is 3.988 billion yuan, but the debt is as high as 20.367 billion yuan, which is seriously insolvent, and the founder Shen Hui has not appeared in China for many months, the destination is unknown.

Insiders believe that Geely can win the lawsuit, but can't get compensation.