Brief description of the missing core patent of lithium-ion battery materials

With the rapid rise of giants such as Ningde and BYD, almost all Chinese feel that China's lithium-ion battery industry is about to dominate the world and no longer need to look at Americans. But one important issue that seems to have been overlooked is the absence of core patents. The recent ZTE incident has made the people of the country deeply realize that behind the prosperous economy, the lack of core technology is how painful!

When the Americans waved the stick of trade sanctions, we were able to give counter-measures to each other and win the applause of the people of the country. However, the Americans immediately sacrificed the ZTE incident and immediately caught us by surprise. In order to save ZTE, We had to make a huge compromise with the United States. The lesson of the ZTE incident is profound. It has made the people aware of the importance of the core technology. No matter how much it costs, they must control the core technology in their own hands, or they will always be subject to control.

In 2003, some patent holders, such as the Quebec Hydroelectric Corporation of Canada, entered China on the basis of an international patent for lithium iron phosphate under the name PCT/CCA 2001/001349, and filed an application for an invention patent with the State Intellectual Property Office of China. It was authorized in September 2008(ZL01816319.X).

Since then, the LiFePO4 material has quickly occupied the power battery market with its low cost and high safety advantages. The market demand has increased year by year, and after the lamb to be slaughtered has been fattened, The rights companies of Quebec Hydro, Paris CNRS, and Montreal United require all manufacturers of lithium iron phosphate materials in China to pay a patent entry fee of US$ 10 million or pay a patent fee of US$ 2,500 per ton. This has exceeded the profits that material manufacturers can obtain per ton of lithium iron phosphate, and it is undoubtedly a disaster for the domestic lithium iron phosphate industry.

Forced by desperation, the China Battery Industry Association filed an application for the invalidation of the patent of lithium iron phosphate held by the rights holders of Quebec Hydropower of Canada. On May 28, 2011, the Patent Re-examination Commission made a final ruling-Canada. The patent of lithium iron phosphate held by Quebec Hydroelectricity Co., Ltd. is invalid! Rights holders such as Canada's Quebec water and electricity company, still reluctant, appealed to the Beijing high court, which in 2014 finally handed down a ruling upholding the original verdict, leaving Chinese producers of lithium iron phosphate materials to escape punishment.

After we thought the lithium iron phosphate incident was over, the domestic power cell market changed direction. Under the guidance of the National subsidy policy, the passenger car power battery quickly turned to the more energy-dense ternary material. However, we still face the problem of the lack of core patents on ternary materials. At present, the core patents of ternary materials are in the hands of 3M in the United States and Agun National Laboratory in the United States. It is generally believed that the patents held by 3M companies are conventional chemometrics ratio NMC materials, while the patents of Argonne National Laboratory are layered lithium-rich materials. At present, the applications on power cells are basically conventional chemometrics ratio NMC materials. Including mainstream power core manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Hitachi, Belgian beautiful branch, South Korea L& Mainstream material manufacturers such as F, SK, and Hunan Ruixiang all purchased related patent licenses from 3M.

Core technology has become the core competitiveness of the lithium-ion battery industry. The lack of core technology and patents may still be able to hide under the umbrella at home, but when a company really wants to go abroad and enter the international market, The lack of core technology patents will make it impossible to move. China's lithium-ion battery industry still lacks core patents today, and this will become a huge gap in the face of competition from international giants. We hope that the large number of lithium ion battery material manufacturers and battery manufacturers in China can learn lessons from the ZTE incident, invest more time and funds in the development of core technologies, and carry out the layout of core patents as soon as possible to avoid repeating the mistakes.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.