21 depth ｜ Ningde era disputes continue: the three "defense war" of trillions of giants

21st Century Business Herald Reporter Zuo Maoxuan Beijing report

The patent infringement case that lasted more than a year has not yet been settled, and Ningde Times launched a new round of offensive on China Innovation Airlines.

On August 1st, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned from the relevant sources in Ningde Times that the Ningde Times filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against China Innovation Airlines, with a claim amount of 130 million yuan. At present, the Fujian Provincial High Court has accepted the case. At the same time, Ningde Times officially sued the court in the court in unfair competition.

Coupled with the five patent infringements of 518 million yuan of claims in July last year, the amount of claims involved in the Ningde Times and China Innovation Airlines Patent Cases had exceeded 648 million yuan.

On July 22, some media reports said that the five patents proposed by China Innovation Airlines were invalidated, and the three of them were proactively withdrawn, and the other two were sentenced to all or part of the validity.

Subsequently, the Ningde Times confirmed that China Innovation Airlines had previously submitted five invalid requests invalidation of the patent involvement, and none of them were successful. "On the one hand, the Ningde Times respects third -party intellectual property rights, is willing to maintain communication and cooperation with industry participants on the licensing of intellectual property authorization, and on the other hand, it will also strive to combat malicious infringement and maintain the healthy competition in the market." Ningde Times emphasized.

On July 27, China Innovation Airlines issued a statement in the official WeChat public account: At present, the invalidation of the lawsuit and the patent involved in the case is still in the trial stage, and there is no effective judgment. China Innovation Airlines also pointed out in the statement that "'protecting intellectual property is to protect innovation', but under the banner of" protecting innovation ", using a non -innovative patent covering the public technology of the first public technology, the truth about malicious suppression of the industry in the industry in the industry , Violate the patent law 'to promote scientific and technological progress and economic and social development' legislative purpose. "

Both sides were tense. On the one hand, the industry leader Ningde Times strongly stated that he had to fight against infringement, and on the other hand, it was the later show of innovation. After all, it is necessary to wait for the final judgment results of the court.

However, the lawsuit of the Ningde Times and another competitor honeycomb energy came to an end after 5 months.

Earlier, Ningde Times made a job of hive energy associated with nine employees in violation of the competition agreement to claim 9 million yuan from honeycomb energy. On July 18, the Honeycomb Energy and Ningde Times received the "Civil Mediation Letter" from the Ningde Intermediate People's Court. In Ningde Times received 5 million yuan in reconciliation of honeycomb energy.

New energy vehicles continue to be hot, and the power battery market is also growing rapidly. In addition to Ningde Times and BYD, China's second echelon battery companies are also rising rapidly.

Statistics released by South Korean research institution Snee Research show that in the first half of this year, the number of power battery vehicles in Ningde Times was 69 GWH, with a market share of 34%, ranking first in the world. China Innovation Airlines ranked seventh after LG, BYD, Panasonic, SK and Samsung (third Chinese enterprise), with a total of 9GWH in the global vehicle, with a market share of 4%. Honeycomb energy is ranked tenth (sixth in Chinese enterprises) with a global loading volume of hive energy and a market share of 1%.

The leading status of the Ningde era is still obvious. However, due to the large scale of its scale, the growth rate of the Ningde era was the lowest among the top ten Chinese companies. In the first half of the year, the growth rate of the loading volume in Ningde Times was 111%, and the growth rates of China Innovation Airlines and honeycomb energy were 163%and 152%, respectively.

Patent war

Disputes of Ningde Times and China Innovation Airlines dates back to July 2021.

On July 21, 2021, the Ningde Times officially sued the patent infringement of AVIC Lithium (China Innovation Airlines). The latter was suspected of covering all its products in the scope of infringement, and then the 21st Century Business Herald reporter confirmed the matter to the relevant person in Ningde Times.

Ningde Times said that the patent involved in the invention and practical type of patent involved in the case was carried out on tens of thousands of vehicles. The lithium power of AVIC claims that the products provided to customers have been investigated by a comprehensive risk investigation by the professional intellectual property team to ensure that they do not infringe on intellectual property rights of others.

According to disclosure, there are five battery -related patents that sue AVIC in the Ningde Times, involving technologies such as orthopedic poles and batteries, explosion -proof devices. In Ningde Times required AVIC Lithium Calm to stop manufacturing and sales of the above infringing products, and claimed 185 million yuan from it. At the same time, AVIC lithium batteries are also required to pay 3 million yuan to bear the cost of Ningde Times to stop infringement.

Since then, AVIC Lithium has submitted a request to invalid announcement of patents invalidation to the National Intellectual Property Office, which has launched a litigation war that lasted for nearly one year around patent issues.

In May of this year, the reporter learned from the Ningde era that due to the huge amount of product value involved in the appeal, Ningde Times had applied to the court to increase the amount of compensation and requested that China Innovation Airlines compensated more than 510 million yuan.

China Innovation Airlines was formerly known as AVIC Lithium Power. It was established in 2007. It is known as the "dark horse" of the power battery industry in the past two years. In 2021, the volume of vehicles ranked third in Chinese companies. China Innovation Airlines officially submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March this year. The company stated that it plans to reach 300GWH production capacity targets in 2025.

Since 2018, China Innovation Airlines has entered the fast track of development. After Liu Jingyu served as chairman of China Innovation Airlines, China Innovation Airlines has conducted two major business transformations: from commercial vehicles to passenger cars, from lithium iron phosphate to three Metropolitan lithium.

The results of the new play are obvious, and China Innovation Airlines quickly launched the 5 Series ternary battery, and harvested many customers through low -cost strategies. "In order to make a ternary battery, AVIC lithium battery dug a lot of people from the Ningde era." Some people in the industry told the 21st Century Economic Herald reporter that China Innovation Airlines technology transitions quickly and is very mature and low in price. It did cause some doubts at the time.

So why is China Innovation Airlines "angry" in Ningde? From the perspective of the industry, the fuse of patent disputes is mainly because China Innovation Airlines snatched customers from the Ningde era.

Data from senior industry lithium batteries show that in 2019, the battery installed capacity of the GAC passenger cars in Ningde Times and China Innovation Airlines was 1136.56GWh and 595.34GWh, respectively. The former was nearly twice the latter. The situation was reversed in 2020. The installed capacity of China Innovation Airlines had a installed capacity of 2033.65GWh, and the Ningde era was reduced to 824.69GWh. The former was nearly 2.5 times that of the latter.

This situation also occurred in Changan Automobile. In 2019, the supporting capacity of AVIC Lithium (785.44GWH) has exceeded the Ningde Times (592.43GWH). Before 2020 (459.21GWh) far exceeded the latter (109.3GWH), the gap was further expanded. In addition, China Innovation Airlines has become the largest supplier of Xiaopeng Automobile since this year.

However, at the World Power Battery Conference held recently, GAC Group Zeng Qinghong said that half of GAC's battery supply is from Ningde Times. Some insiders told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that patent disputes are not the main reason for GAC switching the main suppliers. As the number of customers of China Innovation Airlines increase, it cannot meet the requirements of many car companies at the same time. Essence

It should be pointed out that the main reason for China Innovation Airlines to attract customers is because of low price. The prospectus shows that from 2019 to 2021, the gross profit margin of China Innovation Airlines was 4.8%, 13.6%, and 5.5%, respectively. Since the Ningde Times began in mid-2020, the gross profit margin was basically stable above 27%. From 2019 to 2021, the revenue of China Innovation Airlines soared from 1.733 billion yuan to 6.817 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 98.28%. However, it was not until 2021 that it turned into a profit for the first time. From 2019 to 2021, China Innovation Airlines made a profit of -156 million yuan, -018 million yuan, and 112 million yuan, respectively.

Of course, the patent lawsuit with Ningde Times added a bit of uncertainty to the IPO of China Innovation Airlines to Hong Kong. Once the sentence infringement, China Innovation Airlines faces not only high compensation, but also the risk of product suspension.

China Innovation Airlines mentioned in the prospectus that there is a lack of basis for the allegations of infringement in the Ningde era and will not have a significant adverse effect on the company. At the same time, the patent held by the Ningde Times was invalidated to the State Intellectual Property Office for patents, and the application was reviewed by the latter.

During the National Two Sessions in 2021, Zeng Yuqun, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of Ningde Times, also mentioned in the "Proposal on Strengthening the Protection of Lithium Battery Intellectual Property Rights" that it is difficult to defend the rights protection process of lithium battery intellectual property litigation cases: ; Long rights protection cycle is long, and the characteristics of fast battery products cannot be matched; the preparation of the lawsuit, first instance, second trial, the whole process of the whole case takes about three years, and the renewal period of the lithium battery product is severely lagged behind; the third is the business secret protection rights protection protection. difficulty.

However, from the current point of view, of the previous five patent infringement cases, the Ningde Times stood on the favorable side. The Ningde Times has initiated a new lawsuit this time, which will undoubtedly have a certain impact for China innovation.

Talent warfare

Compared with the tit of Ningde Times and China Innovation Airlines, the Ningde Times sued the unfair competition of Bee's Nest Energy. In the end, the compensation of 5 million yuan was compensated.

Behind this incident is the talent battle brought by the development of the power battery industry.

In February of this year, Ningde Times filed a lawsuit against honeycomb energy, and the case was in unfair competition. Many court judgments showed that from 2018 to 2019, nine Ningde Times employees joined Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin after leaving, providing services to the Ningde era's competitors honeycomb energy. The court determined that Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin were both related parties to hive energy.

In the Ningde era, the nine people violated the "Confidentiality and Competition Restriction Agreement" (hereinafter referred to as the competition agreement) signed with it, so they asked them to compensate 1 million yuan in liquidated damages.

During his tenure in Ningde, he served as chief engineer, manufacturing engineer and market specialist during his tenure. The competition agreement ranged from two to 3 months. Among them, according to disclosure, the monthly salary of 5 people who joined Baoding Yixin in the Ningde era is about 8,000 yuan to 2000 yuan, and the working hours ranging from 3 months to two years. Yuan-6843 yuan, ranging from one to 2 years.

In the end, the two sides reached a settlement. However, the hive energy stated that the constituent uniform competition was based on legal judgment as the factual basis. At present, there is no such factual determination. As an active participant in China's new energy development, the two sides have voluntarily reached a settlement.

Regarding why there is a solution, the hive energy said that the two sides realized that the reconciliation itself is the best way to meet the common interests of the two parties. On the premise of not being injured and qi and protecting the interests of both parties, the problems are resolved through equal negotiation, and the reconciliation model is discussed in the process of reconciliation between the two parties. Honeycomb energy has been committed to promoting the innovation and development of China's new energy industry, and also respects the occupation choices of each employee. The company also strives to provide protection for employees' development rights and interests. However, the Ningde Times and the case of honeycomb energy have also triggered the industry's discussion of "whether the Ningde Times abused the competition agreement".

"In the battery industry, the Ningde era is a good working platform, which is conducive to future development, but the interior is very 'volume', and the work competition pressure is very high. Many departments need 885 or even 886. Otherwise, you may need to be transferred. "On July 28, employees in Ningde Times told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.

He told reporters that employees above level 7 or above in Ningde need to sign the competition agreement, and most of the graduate degree can reach level 7 in the Ningde era. However, the competition agreement also clearly mentioned the competitive agreement gold within a certain period.

According to the list of competitive companies in the Ningde Times Competition Agreement on the Internet, the main power battery companies at home and abroad are included. Therefore, there are former Ningde Times employees told reporters that they are better to be a joint venture or an OEM in the Ningde era.

Under the rapid development of the domestic power battery industry, the competition for talents has become more intense. A second -line battery company told the 21st Century Business Herald that some employees did work in the Ningde era. In addition, he also said that the Ningde Times started early and trained many people in the early days. With the flow of talents, most battery factories had employees who worked in Ningde era.

For second -tier battery companies that are rising rapidly, having a work background in the Ningde era is undoubtedly an important plus item for its "digging". However, with the intensification of industry competition and the acceleration of talent flow, the Ningde era also passed the competition agreement to prevent the leakage of business secrets.

However, there are also questioning voices that the "abuse" competition agreement has limited the career development of ordinary employees, and head enterprises have formed a technical monopoly, which hinders the overall development of the industry and technological innovation.

"Through disputes with honeycomb energy, the Ningde era mainly expresses its own attitude to prevent other companies from digging people with high salaries, especially technology research and development personnel, thereby preventing technology leakage." Some people in the industry told reporters.

Market warfare

Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Ningde Times, said recently that products in the Ningde era have covered 55 countries and regions around the world, and the shipments of power batteries have exceeded 400GWh. One of the three electric vehicles in the world has a matching battery in Ningde Times.

The huge advantage in the market leader in Ningde era was that the customer covered wider, and brought cost advantages and technological advantages through scale advantages. But the Ningde era was not uncomfortable.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, double factors for stacking prices and downstream guarantees, second -tier battery factories may usher in a breakout window period. At present, the battery supply side has the challenge of the shortage of raw materials, rising prices, and epidemic affairs. In order to ensure the safety of power batteries, two or more suppliers will be used, which will inevitably reduce the growth space of the Ningde era.

At the same time, in order to cope with the rise of raw materials, the OEM has entered the upstream and downstream of the battery industry chain. Some start to build a battery by themselves and invest in mining plants, which will also have an impact on power battery companies. Although most battery companies have maintained the stability of car companies through diluting their profit margins, more and more OEMs are increasing investment in the battery field in order to maintain the stability and security of the supply chain.

BYD accelerates the establishment of a joint venture with FAW outside the battery. Volkswagen China has invested in Guoxuan Hi -Tech to become the largest shareholder, Mercedes -Benz's shares in Fineng Technology ... When the host factory cultivates its own battery supply company, the position of the Ningde Times in its supply chain also has the position in its supply chain. It may change.

In the domestic market, Ningde Times wants to keep the market share, and the positive competition between the second -tier battery companies is inevitable.

Of course, in addition to the domestic market, the greater opportunity of Ningde era is overseas. However, it should be pointed out that in overseas markets, Ningde Times did not dominate the competition with Japanese and Korean companies.

Although LG's new energy and Panasonic are more bleak in the Chinese market, the market share is higher than the Ningde era in Europe and the United States and other overseas markets. Japanese and Korean companies have long been deployed in Europe, the United States and other places. Although the Ningde era has built factories in Germany and has been permitted by battery production, it still takes time to open the market situation.

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