Smart home competition is becoming increasingly fierce, patents will become the key to victory

In the past two years, with the support of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, smart homes have ushered in a new development, and more and more startup companies, Internet companies, home appliance manufacturers, and real estate dealers have launched in-depth layouts. With the increasingly fierce market competition and the diversification of the focus, the patent war in the field of smart homes is also escalating. Recently, Nanjing Wulian, a domestic smart home pan-ecosystem provider that has been deeply involved in smart homes for nearly 10 years, filed a lawsuit in the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province against the infringement of the patent rights of the Xiaomi ecological chain company Lumi Lianchuang, requesting Lmi Lianchuang to immediately Stop the production and sales of specific smart door locks and compensate for losses.　　 Smart home technology has more than 30 years of development. The earliest smart home patents began in 1983, and the number of smart home patent applications throughout the 20th century grew slowly. Entering the 21st century, related patent applications in the field of smart homes have increased rapidly. After 2010, patent applications related to smart homes have shown a rapid growth trend.　　 Smart home is a sunrise industry, or a blue ocean to be developed. Its huge volume can accommodate more and more market competitors. In the future, industry competition will become extremely fierce. Gartner, a market research organization, predicts that by 2020, the growth of IoT products will more than triple. In 2016 alone, it will increase by 50% over 2015. The main driving force in the future will be related products for smart homes and smart commercial buildings. , Whether it is an office or a home, the next 5 years will be occupied by a large number of IoT products.　　According to the development laws and trajectories of other industries, industry competition is fierce and gradually entering a mature period. The corresponding intellectual property protection is also becoming increasingly important, and disputes will increase accordingly. Taking the current mature smartphone industry as an example, there are numerous patent wars triggered by the protection of intellectual property rights in mobile phones.　　 In the face of a huge market and rapid growth, the future smart home market competition will undoubtedly become more intense. Due to patent technology barriers, many companies' smart home roads may enter a dead end. Intellectual property rights will be the key to smart home competition.　　 It is well known that patents are not only a weapon for enterprises to participate in market competition, but also an important standard for measuring their own technological innovation and independent innovation capabilities. For enterprises, obtaining patents, especially invention patents, is to build up strength and pave the way for the future, and means to take the initiative in development.　　 At present, well-known companies, such as Huawei, Apple, Google, General Electric, Gree, etc., have accumulated profound knowledge and expertise in intellectual property and patents. Only then can companies gain a firm foothold in the industry. Patents have always been a magic weapon for companies to win. With the rapid development of smart homes in the Internet of Things, the next wave of patent wars in the industry will soon come.　　 In addition, the IoT ecosystem can only operate when the components can communicate with each other, so smart home companies inevitably need to integrate standardized technologies to a certain extent, and standardized technologies usually involve a large number of patents. Internet of Things companies should formulate their own intellectual property strategy as early as possible, and actively participate in the standard-setting work, so as to greatly improve their market competitiveness. (Source: China Sanitary Ware Network)