Qicheng new energy car companies will become defendants?

In ancient Greece, there was a legend: King Dionysius invited his minister Damocles to dinner and ordered him to sit under a shimmering sword that was hung with a stable. Later, people used the "Sword of Damocles" to borrow the dangers and dangers behind Bian Yat-Sung and warned people to constantly reflect on potential risks and resolve them.

Nowadays, the field of electric vehicle batteries in China seems to be encountering the "Sword of Damocles". Recently, a company representative told the Auto Business Daily that there are hidden patent risks behind the vigorous development of domestic lithium batteries. Since there is no patent ownership, 70% of new energy vehicle manufacturers and battery suppliers in the country may become “defendants” in the future. ".

Seductive "cake"

Since 2009, as the country's investment in the development of new energy vehicles has been continuously increased, various favorable policies have been introduced, and China has become the world's first new energy vehicle market. At the same time, the upstream of the new energy automobile industry chain, the lithium battery manufacturing companies, has also been continuously launched around the country like “spring bamboo shoots”. Huang Xuejie, a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with reporters that at present, there are more than 300 companies that make lithium-ion batteries in China and more than 100 companies that use lithium iron phosphate materials.

Seemingly high-tech battery industry, in fact, the threshold of entry does not seem high. Changsha Yongkang, Changshu Hezhong Environmental Protection Energy Technology Research Institute, told the Auto Business Daily that a small plant with an annual output of 200 tons of lithium iron phosphate cathode material will have an investment of 2.2 million yuan (excluding testing equipment). , And its annual output is as high as 30 million yuan. The profit behind the battery is also amazing.

According to a research report of Guolian Securities, lithium-ion batteries with lithium iron phosphate as cathode materials have gross profit rates as high as 40% to 70%, far exceeding the lithium manganate and lithium cobalt oxide used as cathode materials. 40%, 20%).

With the lure of high profits, lithium-ion power batteries have become an important part of the domestic electric vehicle industry. It is understood that among the 17 hybrid and pure electric vehicles that have been announced in China, 11 models are equipped with lithium-ion batteries, and lithium iron phosphate batteries account for the vast majority of them.

Li Shengmao, an analyst of China Investment Advisor Automobile Industry, predicts that by 2012, the annual output of new energy vehicles will reach 1 million, and the cost of each new energy automobile battery will be 70,000 yuan, and the positive lithium iron phosphate material of power lithium battery will be 52 kilograms. 41 kilograms of anode material, 40 kilograms of electrolyte solution, 1 million hybrid vehicles will drive 52,000 tons of cathode materials, 41,000 tons of anode materials, and 40,000 tons of electrolyte requirements. For domestic battery manufacturers, this will be a big cake with a total output value of 70 billion yuan.

Patent Hidden Faced with such a huge cake, companies in various countries naturally do not want to miss.

“Japan, China and South Korea are the world’s top three lithium-ion battery producers. In 2010, the global production of lithium-ion batteries was about 5 billion, and China produced 1.6 billion, accounting for 32%.” China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association The Secretary-General Liu Yanlong said a few days ago. However, such a huge lithium battery industry faces great material patent disputes, which has also become the head of the lithium battery industry in China.

Yang Zhiwei, general manager of Taiwan Likai Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Taiwan Likai”) told Auto Business News that in the field of lithium iron phosphate batteries and materials, there are three core technology patents that cannot be bypassed. One of them is Coated with carbon technology patents, the latter two are lithium iron phosphate materials patents and carbon thermal reduction technology patents. The former has applied for in China, Canadian company Phostech has exclusive use rights; the latter has not yet applied for a patent in China, and they are respectively owned by Canadian company Phostech and American Power Company.

Faced with patent barriers, some domestic companies have launched their own brands of "insulation membrane." “At present, the main difference between domestic isolation membranes and foreign excellent isolation membranes is poor domestic consistency. The use of domestic isolation membranes will lead to unstable cell quality.” Guo Hua, Marketing Manager, Zhejiang Zhongyu Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. said, “Although A few companies claimed that there was no problem with the patent, but as far as I know, this is not the case, and there are many complicated issues that need to be resolved.With the Canadian company Phostech acquiring carbon technology patents in China, and Wei Neng and other companies to capture the pace of the Chinese market Accelerating the issue of patents has already been put in front of us very realistically and cannot be evaded."

The reporter learned that the representative of the China Battery Industry Association is currently working with a number of battery companies to actively take action to collect evidence to prove that the patent technology of lithium iron phosphate coating carbon applied by Canadian company Phostech in China last year was invalid.

However, Yang Zhiwei stated that in regard to the patenting of carbon technology patents, since the Canadian company Phostech had obtained patents in 2000, and domestic research began after 2003, it is difficult to achieve success in this respect.

The reporter learned from Article 22 of the Patent Law that the patent application must be novel, creative, practical, and has no other substantive issues before it can be authorized. A staff member of the State Intellectual Property Office stated that the best method of proof is to find one or more previously published documents and compare them with the claims of the patents. If they overlap, they can prove that the patent lacks novelty.

The risk of litigation is worrying. "Although the lithium iron phosphate itself patented material and the patented U.S. Vatone carbon-reduction technology patent have not been applied in China," Henan Central Chairman Li Middle East worried that "both are cooperating with carbon technology patents. The United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada have applied for patent protection. In the future, once lithium iron phosphate batteries produced in China are exported to the aforementioned 7 countries, such as the US and UK, they will experience patent risks."

Yang Zhiwei once made a statistic. At present, the 220 or so patents owned by domestic enterprises are not core patents. Many patent applications are used for reporting projects. At present, the only company licensed by the Canadian company Phostech to conduct business in China is Li Kai of Taiwan. The only domestic companies that cooperate with it are ATL, Lishen, and Bick, and most of the battery companies are infringing on production and sales.

"Regardless of the actual situation, 70% of new energy vehicle manufacturers and battery suppliers in the country may become 'defendants' in the future. This is an issue that needs to be considered by the entire industry." Someone in the industry expressed concern about "overtaking the corners." On the way, the patented technology will not be a stumbling block to the development of electric vehicles."