Recently, the US sweeping robot company iRobot filed a “337 investigation†with the US International Trade Commission, alleging that 11 companies worldwide infringed on six patents, including three Chinese companies, thus setting off a sweeping robot patent war that affects the global market. .
iRobot US market faces crisis
The “337 Investigation†was named after Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930. Under this provision, the US International Trade Commission has the power to investigate complaints about patent and registered trademark infringement, as well as investigations involving the misappropriation of trade secrets, commodity packaging infringement, imitations, and false advertising.
iRobot sued companies including the United States, Canada and other competitors, including Bissell, Hoover, Bobsweep, Grand Rapids, The Black & Decker, etc., including three Chinese companies: Shenzhen Zhiyi Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Real Electric Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Silver Star Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. Why the prosecution of Chinese companies is actually threatened by Chinese products.
iRobot is a veteran robot manufacturer and the first listed company to sweep robots. In recent years, with the increasing number of companies entering the field of sweeping robots, the competition among major manufacturers has become increasingly fierce, and iRobot's market position has plummeted.
It is understood that the world's two largest sweeping robot market, one is the United States, and the other is China. In the US market, iRobot is still a first-line brand. In the Chinese market, according to GfK data, in 2016, the domestic market share of Chinese brands accounted for 80%, and foreign brands accounted for 20%. A major feature of the Chinese market is that the online market is highly developed, with a share of 89%. Foreign brands are mainly offline channels, domestic brands are mainly online, and e-commerce plays an important role in the wrestling of domestic and foreign brands.
From this analysis, iRobot has become insignificant in the Chinese market. Under such circumstances, it must rack its brains to consolidate its market position in the United States. And just in the US market, iRobot is also facing a crisis of fierce competition from China.
According to industry sources, in 2015, Chinese companies began to take the cross-border e-commerce channel. On the cross-border e-commerce platform with Amazon as the mainstream, the price of Chinese sweeping robots is much lower than that of iRobot robots, and the functional gap is getting smaller and smaller. Americans who are cost-effective are more willing to pay for Chinese products. As a result, Chinese sweeping robots are rapidly climbing sales to the US. In addition, the amount of Chinese OEM and ODM sweeping robots exported to the United States is also rapidly increasing. Now, the number of sweeping robots sold to Europe and the United States every month is about 300,000 units, and the number of sweeping robots was only about 50,000 units a year ago. Cross-border e-commerce and OEM exports have had a big impact on iRobot.
Looking at the financial reports in recent years, iRobot's revenue growth is slowing and profits are falling. In 2016, iRobot's revenue increased by 7.1% year-on-year, a growth rate of 3.7 percentage points less than in 2015; profit of 4.19 billion US dollars, less than 220 million US dollars in 2015. In the same period, the global sweeping robot market is on the rise. The decline in revenue made iRobot sway the patent "big stick" and attacked competitors.
The company involved will actively respond to the lawsuit
It is understood that two of the three Chinese companies are actually the foundry companies of the US companies being sued: Suzhou Real Power for Hoover OEM, Shenzhen Silver Star for Hoover, Bobsweep, The Black & Decker. The source told reporters that the Chinese companies that iRobot used for patent prosecution were mainly enterprises in the supply chain. They were not China's competitive brands. The targets and weapons of choice had special intentions.
In terms of patents, iRobot currently has nearly 1,000 patents or patent applications, and the patent library trap has already been laid. Liu Gang, director of Jihui Zhijia Intellectual Property Management Consulting Co., Ltd., told China Electronics News that iRobot's patent protection covers the upstream and downstream of the service robot's industrial chain, such as control technology, path navigation technology and SLAM technology, focusing on the underlying technology. on. In addition, iRobot's patent application is mainly in the United States, and its prosecution in the United States may be greater.
IRobot was chosen for the purpose of suing these Chinese companies. The source revealed to reporters that Shenzhen Zhiyi and Shenzhen Yinxing are the first echelons of China's sweeping robot foundry companies. Liu Gang believes that although these companies are ODM (OEM) companies, some of China's outstanding ODMs are now expanding their business scope, forming their own brands, using channel capabilities and supply chain management, and original partners. Conduct positive competition. Chinese products often win with good quality and low price, which greatly affects the market structure of original brand manufacturers. iRobot's move is also to exclude potential competitors from the market.
The reporter learned that third-party institutions in the industry are organizing Chinese companies to respond actively. Zhou Nan, secretary general of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, told the China Electronics News that the Chamber of Commerce had just organized the “337 Investigation†early warning work meeting. The three companies involved have indicated that they will actively respond to the case.
Chinese market should be laid out early
The sweeping robot market will enter a period of rapid growth from last year to this year, and in the next two years. GfK analyst Pan Jingwei told the China Electronics News that China's sweeping robot market will usher in a small boom in the second half of this year.
In the past 10 years, the sweeping robot industry has been in a relatively quiet state. Since last year, the industrial process has suddenly accelerated. The source pointed out to reporters that the main reason is that the technology has made a breakthrough. In the second half of the year, there will be a bigger upsurge, also because of technological advances. The core of the sweeping robot is the intelligent planning path, which requires powerful software algorithms. In terms of intelligent algorithms, with the rapid development of China's artificial intelligence technology in the past two years, the intelligentization of sweeping robots has also made breakthroughs. The innovation and popularization of technology, as well as the increase of industry practitioners, have enabled the cost of sweeping robot products to decrease rapidly and the product experience to increase rapidly. In China, the technological gap between sweeping robot technology and foreign benchmarking companies is rapidly shrinking, and even some of them surpass the latter, and the selling price is rapidly reduced to about 2,000 yuan. For the same function, iRobot is priced at around 890,000, which is a big gap.
Last year, Xiaomi released a sweeping robot. From appearance design to performance, it was comparable to international big names, but the price was 1699 yuan, which quickly pushed the Chinese market to low-price competition. Entering low-price competition too early is not a blessing to the industry. Pan Jingwei pointed out that the Chinese sweeping robot market tends to be homogenized, from the function and shape of the sweeping robot to the propaganda means and content.
Pan Jingwei also revealed that according to the observation of GfK, there are not many patents for sweeping robots in China. However, there will be more technology and patents entering the Chinese market in the future. The patent war that started in the US market meant re-integration of the market and product shuffling.
The sweeping robot market is still in the ascendant stage. Liu Gang suggested that before product development, companies should try their best to find out the potential patent barriers that may exist, instead of paying the tuition fees after the product is listed and sold. For start-ups, due to lack of human and financial resources, we should concentrate on spending money on the place where the flowers are spent, protect core technologies and products, and keep track of the intellectual property protection of major competitors.
Silent Generator,400Kw Silent Generator,Home Silent Generator,Silent Generator Below 75 Db
Jinan Guohua Green Power Equipment Co.,Ltd. , https://www.guohuagenerator.com