The patent dispute was once again staged between Xiaomi Group and Huawei. On December 12, Xiaomi Group issued a statement saying that recently,Mr. Yu Chengdong made false statements against the company’s "keel shaft" technology for no reason, which was seriously inconsistent with the facts.
The dispute stems from the speech made by Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of terminal BG and chairman of BU, a smart car solution, at the Huawei Pollen Annual Meeting in 2023: "Don’t respect us very much.(Huawei)Intellectual property rights, take it and just make up a name and say your own. Double-rotating water drop hinge directly becomes keel hinge, and keel does not exist. "
It is worth noting that both the "double-rotating water drop hinge" and the "keel hinge" are the key components of the folding screen mobile phone, which is the key to determine the completion of the folding screen mobile phone product. In the context of sluggish demand in the terminal market, the "dark horse" of folding screen mobile phones has a considerable market in the future. Moving towards folding screens has become a tacit strategic direction for mobile phone manufacturers.
First, Xiaomi Group publicly clarified
At noon on December 12th, the reporter of national business daily learned from Xiaomi Group that the spokesman of Xiaomi Company released a clarification message through Weibo, saying that recently, Mr. Yu Chengdong made false remarks against the company’s "keel shaft" technology for no reason, which was seriously inconsistent with the facts. Please ask Mr. Yu Chengdong to follow the basic rules of "science and rigor" and stop discrediting his peers and misleading the public.
Image source: Sina Weibo
This "war" originated from the speech made by Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of BG and chairman of BU, a smart car solution, at the 2023 annual pollen conference. At that time, he once "bombarded" friends and merchants for plagiarism: "Don’t respect us very much.(Huawei)Intellectual property rights, take it and just make up a name and say your own. Double-rotating water drop hinge directly becomes keel hinge, and keel does not exist. "
This remark attracted Xiaomi’s "return".
According to Xiaomi Group, the "keel shaft" is a new generation of folding shaft developed by Xiaomi Group, and it is the first three-level rod group structure in the industry. No matter the design idea or the mechanical structure, the "keel shaft" is completely different from the "double-rotating water drop hinge" declared by Mr. Yu Chengdong.
Xiaomi said that after studying the technical information and published patent information disseminated by Mr. Yu Chengdong’s company, and after actual disassembly and verification, the "double-rotating water drop hinge" adopts the design scheme of "2-level rod group, 3 components and 4 low pairs"; The mechanical structure of Xiaomi’s self-developed "keel shaft" adopts the innovative design of "3-level rod group, 5 components and 7 low pairs".
At the same time, Xiaomi also took a number of screenshots in the social media comment area, saying that the company’s self-developed "keel shaft" applied for a patent on September 18, 2020 and was granted a patent on January 5, 2021; August, 2023 in Xiaomi MIX Fold.(Mobile phone model)On the first application. The "double-rotating water drop hinge" claimed by Mr. Yu Chengdong applied for a patent on December 13th, 2019 and was published on June 18th, 2021. Yu Chengdong’s company’s patent application for the three-level bar group was filed on October 29th, 2021 and made public on May 5th, 2023. So far, there is no information to confirm the authorization, and it has not been commercialized.
Judging from the attitude of Xiaomi Group, this response can be described as sharp: "Please ask Mr. Yu Chengdong to follow the basic rules of’ science and rigor’, and don’t discredit his peers and mislead the public."
As of press time, Huawei has not responded to the above statement of Xiaomi Group.
Second, the patent dispute between the two parties is not the first time.
In the face of this "Mihua patent dispute", many netizens expressed their opinions in the comment area.
National business daily reporter noticed that many netizens talked about the different types of patents involved in Xiaomi and Huawei. According to the information disclosed by Xiaomi, the patent type of the company’s "hinge, display module and terminal equipment" is "utility model"; Huawei’s patent type of "folding mechanism and folding electronic equipment" is "invention application".
Some netizens’ opinions Image source: social media screenshot
However, some netizens pointed out that,Xiaomi’s patent for "hinge, display module and terminal equipment" also involves "double application in one case" when applying.
According to the analysis of a person in the industry who did not want to be named, the above case of Xiaomi may involve "double application in one case". Paragraph 1 of Article 9 of the current Patent Law stipulates: "Only one patent right can be granted for the same invention-creation. However, if the same applicant applies for both a patent for utility model and an invention patent for the same invention-creation on the same day, and the patent right for utility model obtained first has not been terminated, and the applicant declares to give up the patent right for utility model, the invention patent right may be granted. "
According to public information, the "keel hinge" technology is used on Xiaomi’s flagship folding screen mobile phone Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 released this year. Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi, once said that Xiaomi keel shaft contains 198 parts, 14 movable joints and 3-level linkage structure, which can provide better screen protection while realizing thinness.
Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 (right) Image source: Xiaomi official website screenshot
The "double rotating water drop hinge" was first proposed by Huawei in 2021. At that time, Yu Chengdong said at the press conference that Huawei’s water drop hinge is an exclusive patent, and other companies must use Huawei’s patented technology if they want to realize seamless folding screen.
Huawei Mate-x folding screen mobile phone Image source: national business daily (data map)
It is worth mentioning that,This is not the first time that Huawei and Xiaomi have had differences on intellectual property issues.On January 17th this year, China National Intellectual Property Administration accepted the patent infringement case brought by Huawei, the claimant, against Xiaomi. Judging from the contents of the patents, the above four patents involved in disputes are respectively: method and device for sending control signaling, method for feeding back ACK/NACK information during carrier aggregation, base station and user equipment, method and terminal for acquiring panoramic images, screen locking method and mobile terminal.
On March 1, Xiaomi responded: "The two sides are actively negotiating on patent licensing." Since then, Xiaomi has successively initiated requests for invalidation of four patents involved in Huawei’s case, and China National Intellectual Property Administration conducted oral trials after accepting them. In September this year, China National Intellectual Property Administration declared that "the patent right will remain valid".
On September 13th this year, Huawei and Xiaomi announced a global patent cross-licensing agreement, which covers communication technologies including 5G. When talking about whether the signing of the new agreement will affect the previous patent disputes, Xiaomi Group once responded exclusively to the reporter of national business daily: "The previous legal procedures will be resolved according to this agreement."
By the end of 2022, Huawei had more than 120,000 valid authorized patents in the world, and was in a leading position in many mainstream standard patent fields such as mobile communication, short-range communication and codec. In 2022, Huawei’s patent licensing revenue was about 560 million US dollars.
Third, the competition for folding screen mobile phones is becoming increasingly fierce.
Both the "double-rotating water drop hinge" and the "keel hinge" are key components of the folding screen mobile phone:It is an important mechanical "joint" to support the flexible screen, control the rotation range and realize the shape change of the mobile phone; At the same time, it is also the key to determine the completion of folding screen mobile phone products, which tests the technical accumulation of major mobile phone manufacturers.
In this context, the "dark horse" of folding screen mobile phones has become a cluster of flames in the winter of mobile phone consumption. From the appearance, the innovative and personalized appearance of the folding screen mobile phone relieves consumers’ aesthetic fatigue of the traditional straight mobile phone; Different folding methods, such as left and right folding, up and down folding, internal folding and external folding, also bring new experiences to consumers.
According to Counterpoint’s forecast, the shipment of folding screen mobile phones in China will exceed 5 million units in 2023, and it is expected to explode in 2024, reaching 10 million units. In 2025, the folding screen market in China will reach 17 million units. Omdia predicts that by 2026, the global shipment of folding screen smartphones will reach 61 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of 46.6% from 2021 to 2026.
In the face of the rare incremental market, almost all major mobile phone brands except Apple have entered the folding track.Going to the folding screen has become a tacit strategy for mobile phone manufacturers, especially those who compete for high-end share.
As for the current market share of each company, the report released by IDC, an international data company, shows that the market shipment of folding screen mobile phones in China reached 1.96 million units in the third quarter, up 90.4% year-on-year.
In terms of manufacturers, Huawei ranked first in the market share in the first three quarters of this year, reaching 31.7%; OPPO ranked second with a share of 17.9%; Samsung ranked third, accounting for 15.4% of the market; Glory gained 15.1% market share, ranking fourth; Vivo ranked fifth, with a share of 12.7%, and X Flip continued to sell well for half a year. Xiaomi’s market share is 5.2%, and the first sale of MIX Fold3 is obviously better than that of the previous generation.
This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account:Headline of each warp (ID: nbdtoutiao)Author: Yang Hui, Jing Wong, Editor: Cheng Peng, Zhang Haini, Du Hengfeng.
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