On December 27, Gree Electric clarified the false information that "Oaks sued Gree for infringement and received 58.49 million compensation" late at night.
Recently, some ** reported that in the patent infringement case of Oaks v. Gree five years ago, Oaks finally received 58.49 million yuan in compensation. However, Gree said that the information was false, and the final judgment of the second instance had ruled that the patent purchased by Oaks did not meet the conditions for authorization, revoked the relevant judgment of the court, and dismissed Oakes' lawsuit.
According to Yicai, an enterprise database platform mistakenly updated the time of the first-instance judgment of the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court in August 2022 to December 24, 2023, which led to relevant false reports and discussions.
At this point, the dust has finally settled on this once-uproarious patent infringement case, which had offered sky-high compensation. In the previous first-instance judgment, the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court and the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled that Gree Electric should pay Oaks a total of about 2The sky-high price of 200 million yuan.
At the scene of the trial of the second instance, this much-anticipated trial was also extremely lively, and the online live broadcast alone attracted nearly 60,000 people*** The 9-hour trial only had a break of 1 hour in the middle, and the observers took notes on the case briefing materials distributed before the trial, "The technical analysis of the patent case is very exciting, as if it is a large-scale public class." ”
From the sky-high compensation to the dismissal of the lawsuit, the main reason for such a twist and turn is that the court held in the second instance that the patent purchased by Oaks did not meet the conditions for authorization and should be invalidated.
In fact, whether Oakes has the qualifications of the plaintiff is also one of the main disputes in the second instance. At that time, Oakes purchased a patent for the invention of a compressor from Toshiba Carrier, and believed that Gree had infringed the product patent. However, Gree argued that the infringing products involved in the case used prior art and did not infringe the patent rights involved in the case.
The massive patent infringement case ended with Oaks' withdrawal. It is worth mentioning that just three months after the second-instance trial, Gree demanded that Oaks compensate Gree for economic losses and reasonable rights protection costs of 99 million yuan on the grounds that Oaks infringed its trade secrets and used air conditioner products, molds and technical drawings manufactured by Gree.
The prosecution wars between the two sides have a long history. The Paper has reported that since 2010, Oaks has poached more than 300 core backbone personnel of Gree Electric Appliances in R&D, quality inspection and other departments through various improper methods, and the means are constantly escalating. Gree Electric also said that the purpose of Oaks was not only to "steal" talents, but to steal Gree's trade secrets, and to "steal" Gree's core technology or the latest project information in research and development by poaching people.
Dong Mingzhu has also bombarded Oaks' "poaching" in public many times: "Oaks poachs people here every day, and even the people who dig have changed their names and surnames in the past, for fear that we will be held accountable" "When an enterprise relies on other people's technology, or uses unscrupulous means to rob other people's people and technologies, even if it can survive today, it will still die tomorrow." ”
Since then, the two sides have continuously set off litigation wars around patent infringement, commercial disputes and other issues. According to incomplete statistics from the city, since 2017, Gree has sued Oaks for patent infringement more than 20 times, and most of them have won. Oakes also sued Gree several times for patent infringement, but failed several times.
Behind the frequent battles between Gree and Oaks is the fierce competition in the air conditioning industry.
Before Gree bombarded Oaks, Oakes, known as the "** butcher", swept the market, and after the tug-of-war with Gree to sue for a tug-of-war, Oakes lost several times, and at the same time, Oakes also went downhill.
In addition to the continuous lawsuit with Gree, which led to word of mouth**, Oaks' core online channels have also plummeted.
According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in 2018, the proportion of online sales of Oaks reached 917%, that is, in 2018, Oaks won the first place in the domestic air conditioning e-commerce market, surpassing Midea and Gree, with a market share of 26%.
Later, the Big Three began to develop online channels, which directly caused Oaks to be contained. By 2022, Oaks' market share has shrunk by nearly 20%, from the original first to the current eighth.
Not only that, Oaks is also facing the entry of brands such as Xiaomi and Hualing. In 2022, the average prices of Xiaomi and Hualing will be 2,331 yuan and 2,414 yuan respectively, two or three hundred yuan lower than Oaks' 2,631 yuan. In Oaks' strong online channels, the market share is also gradually approaching, and in 2022, Hualing and Xiaomi's online sales will account for 538% and 451% from Oaks' 594% is just one step away.
The development of air conditioning technology has been very mature, and there is basically no question of who is more advanced than whom," said Liu Buchen, a senior analyst in the home appliance industry, "The specific difference lies in the different brand reputation, as well as the durability, stability and durability of the product." ”
In recent years, the domestic air-conditioning industry has continued to be sluggish, facing a decline in revenue and sales. However, this year, the air conditioning industry has ushered in a wave of small lifts, and in the first half of 2023, the retail sales of the air conditioning market will be 129 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 185%；The retail sales volume was 36.9 million units, a year-on-year increase of 176%, ushered in a long-awaited double increase in production and sales.
Guosheng's research report also believes that 2023 may become the best year for air conditioning investment since 2018, and the profitability of the air conditioning industry chain is expected to be repaired this year. From the perspective of sales volume, the industry base will be low in 2022, and sales growth is expected to be achieved in 2023 under the low base and the deferred release of decoration demand.
In the context of the recovery of the industry, it has also driven the performance of several giants to climb. In the first half of this year, Midea's core revenue HVAC business increased by nearly 10 billion yuan to 9200.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1054%；The air-conditioning business accounts for more than 70% of Gree Electric, and the revenue of the air-conditioning business is 6999.8 billion yuan, an increase of 182%；Haier Smart Home's air conditioning business revenue was 279900 million yuan, an increase of 18 percent year-on-year25%, the growth rate leads other categories.
This also means that the war for the market share of air conditioners will intensify.
Author |Zhang Jikang.
Edit |Chen Fang.
Operations |Liu Shan.