230,000 patents shared for free: This giant wants to end the global mobile phone patent war

Recently, Google organized the Android phone camp to establish a patent alliance called PAX. The purpose is to resolve potential patent lawsuits through internal system sharing and promote open cooperation among mobile phone manufacturers.

By signing a contract and joining the alliance, manufacturers can exchange patents for free, thereby reducing patent disputes between manufacturers. Currently, the members of the alliance include world-renowned companies such as Google, Samsung, LG, Foxconn, Nokia HMD Team, HTC, Coolpad, BQ and Allview. As more companies join, the benefits brought to members by the alliance will also expand. It will help these companies focus on technology research and development instead of patent infringement disputes and lawsuits.

Obviously, the establishment of this alliance will also help the Android camp collectively fight against infringement lawsuits from external opponents. But will the final effect be as effective as originally envisioned in stopping the global mobile phone patent war? We cannot say for sure yet.

Is Google's PAX Alliance just a response to Apple's patent lawsuit?

Who is Apple's next target?

A few days ago, mobile application research organization APP Annie released a report saying that in 2017, Android ecosystem application and subscription revenue will exceed 41 billion US dollars, exceeding Apple's iOS ecosystem of 40 billion US dollars. In 2016, Android was only 27 billion US dollars, while the latter was 34 billion US dollars. You should know that the current comparison of Android and Apple mobile phone shipments is 5:1.

A few years ago, when the Android camp was initially rising, especially when Samsung and Taiwan's HTC's Android phones were sprinting, Apple quickly resorted to litigation to block the global market. At that time, patent litigation broke out between Apple and the Android camp. Faced with the increasing threat, Google spent a huge amount of money to acquire Motorola Mobility. After stripping off almost all valuable patents, Google gave the remaining "Motorola Mobility" to China's Lenovo Group.

2017 is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Apple will definitely make more solid moves in supply chain, marketing and branding, while also creating more buffers for transformation. This is a very sensitive period. Whether Apple will take any action in this cycle, other mobile phone manufacturers dare not act easily, for fear of becoming Apple's next target.

The biggest enemy of the Android camp is not Apple, but its own model!

The Android model disperses its power and cannot resist Apple's offensive!

Android is a free, open-source operating system that any company in the world can modify and customize for its own hardware devices. According to statistics, there are more than 400 Android device manufacturers in the world. In addition, last year, more than 4,000 new Android-based hardware products were launched. Android already has more than one billion users worldwide.

Android is an open source model. This model is indeed very dynamic, and it has created a huge ecosystem in just a few years. Without Android, the global mobile Internet industry might have been delayed for several years.

However, this open sharing concept under open source is only the bottom layer, and it cannot cover up the fact that when it comes to specific Android mobile phone companies, the competition between them is far greater than the competition between the Android camp and other systems such as Apple and Microsoft. The Android system is highly fragmented. Each mobile phone company has developed its own independent operating system based on Android to adapt to its own solutions and experience. This has disintegrated the scale advantage of Android itself. The entire camp looks huge, but in fact it is an isolated island. The shipment ratio of Android phones to Apple phones is 5:1. After 7 or 8 years, the revenue generated by application distribution is still not as good as that of Apple alone.

The key to changing the status quo is not patent sharing, but owning your own patents.

Solving Android's dilemma depends on patents

Moreover, in 2017, every company is under great pressure to survive. How can the giants holding patents be willing to "share" with other companies? The industry has always been a game for the strong.

Therefore, for entities with relatively weaker market power in dealing with patent disputes, forming an alliance to seek assistance is not the best solution. Instead, the best solution is to increase the number and level of their own patents and other internal factors.

In fact, many years ago, when Chinese mobile phone companies encountered patent lawsuits from Nokia, local companies called for the establishment of a patent alliance or patent pool. Previously, the founder of Jiwei.com, Mr. Lao Yao (Wang Yanhui), had tried to coordinate, but it was later abandoned.

Patent - the first means of market competition and the foundation of market foothold .

Only when you are strong enough can you not be afraid of any threats from the outside world. This also applies to enterprises. If you want to avoid patent disputes and prevent them from damaging your company, you can only improve the number and level of your own patents.

There are two ways to improve the number and level of your own patents: purchase and invention.

Patent purchase

Purchasing patents is undoubtedly a quick way to get there. Recently, foreign media reported that BlackBerry seems to be transferring another wave of patents. This transaction will be taken over by intellectual property trading company Hilco Global, and may eventually flow to domestic mobile phone companies, such as OPPO. Last May, BlackBerry CEO John Chen talked about monetizing the company's 40,000 patents as an important part of the company's strategy. Now it seems that it is indeed being implemented. OPPO's low-key IP team has begun to gradually expand its pace of acquiring patents from third parties since last year. It is obviously a consensus among domestic mobile phone manufacturers that it is difficult to move forward without patents. This is not only true for mobile phone manufacturers, but also for companies in other industries.

Patent inventions: Huawei is definitely at the top of the list in terms of domestic mobile phone patent research and development capabilities. Data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that Huawei's data in 2016 showed that by the end of 2015, Huawei had a total of 30,924 authorized patents, 5,052 authorized patents in the United States, and 11,474 authorized patents in European countries. With a high number of patent applications and a high number of patent authorizations, it seems that Huawei is a well-deserved "patent giant".

In 2016, Huawei achieved a sales volume of 139 million units, a 29% growth, and ranked third in the world in terms of shipments. Huawei's achievements are inseparable from its own accumulation of patents. Only by owning independent core patents and making differentiated products can it seize the market. Of course, we cannot just pursue quantity. Improving the quality of patents is also a key issue for every company and even the whole of China.

In short, in today's fiercely competitive market, owning patents by any means is beneficial for companies to occupy a favorable position in the market and achieve long-term development.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.