Seeing Technological Innovation from Patent Status of China Sewing Machinery Industry

The status of technical patent applications can reflect the level of technology and innovation capability of a country or industry.

Against the background of the impact of the global financial crisis, the number of patent applications for domestic sewing machinery continues to increase substantially, making it one of the few bright spots in China's sewing machine industry.

As the world's largest producer and seller of sewing machines, there are nearly 2,000 sewing machine manufacturers in China. In addition, the world-renowned sewing machine manufacturers such as Japan Heavy Machinery, Brothers, and Korea Sunstar have established major production bases in mainland China. At present, the total output of domestic sewing machinery has accounted for more than 80% of the total output of the world's sewing machinery.

In 2008, due to various factors such as the global financial crisis, the domestic sewing machine industry suffered a serious impact. Both the foreign-funded and domestic-funded enterprises experienced significant declines in their production and sales as compared with the same period last year, and corporate profits also fell significantly. However, even under such unfavorable conditions, the number of patent applications for domestic sewing machinery continues to grow substantially, making it one of the few highlights of the Chinese sewing machinery industry's adjustment period.

The status of patent technology in the field of domestic sewing machine

China's patent application system was formed in the early 1980s, and especially before 2000, the number of patents filed by China's sewing machine industry was relatively limited. After entering the 21st century, with the increasing awareness of the intellectual property rights of sewing machine companies in China, and a large number of Japanese sewing machine companies making large-scale patent applications in China, the number of patent applications in the sewing machinery industry in China has increased year by year. Especially in recent years, the number of patents in the industry has shown a "blowout" growth. According to the database search data of the State Intellectual Property Office, between 2000 and 2008, China's sewing machine industry applied for a total of 6,802 patents. In 2008 alone, China's sewing industry applied for a total of 1,238 patents, of which, patents for inventions were applied for. Items, 495 utility model patents, 445 exterior design patents, and 358 patents in 2000 (including 174 invention patents, 135 utility model patents, and 49 exterior design patents) The total number of declarations has increased by several times or even 10 times in each individual item.

It can be seen from Figure 1 that patent applications in the field of sewing machinery have reached a certain scale since the beginning of 2000. Among them, the number of annual invention patents and utility model patents with high technological innovation content has exceeded 100. This was related to the gradual landing of Japanese-funded and Taiwan-funded enterprises in the Mainland in the mid-1990s, which was supported by the number of invention patents granted in that year reaching 116.

According to the data from the national patent database, almost all of the sewing machinery invention patents announced and authorized in 2000 were applied by foreign-funded enterprises, and among them, Japanese companies such as Jung-Etsu, brothers, and Donghae were mostly. Afterwards, the number of patent applications in the field of domestic sewing machinery went all the way higher and peaked in 2005, mainly due to the fact that foreign companies such as Japan have used the geographical characteristics of patents to report a large number of their original products and technologies in China. Significant reductions in the number of invention-invented patents can be seen in 2004. However, it is undeniable that this period was also an important process for the production of high-speed sewing machines from the high-speed sewing machines to the electromechanical integration products. The sewing machine industry ushered in a major change in technology in the history of development, and therefore it was reported in the patents. There are indeed many new inventions and new technologies.

Since 2006, the number of patents in China's sewing industry has “blowouts”. This is mainly due to the fact that after more than 10 years of high-speed expansion, domestic sewing machine companies have begun to shift their focus to improving their innovative capabilities. Enhancement, the effect of independent innovation began to appear, but also benefited from the rapid development of modern information technology, and the rapid update of new technologies, new materials and new processes.

Comparison of Patent Technology of Sino-Japanese Sewing Machines

At present, in the field of invention patents that represent the highest level of patented technology in the industry, Japanese sewing companies are taking the lead in both the number of applications and the number of licenses. According to preliminary estimates of existing data, the current Japanese companies’ share in these two patent fields is approximately 80%-90%, of which, heavy machinery companies account for approximately 40% and brother companies approximately 30%, closely followed by Yamato. Pegasus and other companies, and before 2005, the number of patent applications and licenses of Donghai, Aishin Huiguo, and Mori is relatively high. This also reflects the status quo of the current global sewing machinery industry product technology.

In the area of ​​conventional industrial machines such as multi-functional household machines, embroidery, flats, bags, and stretchers, Japanese companies have become the vanguards in leading the development of the industry's technology. In the area of ​​special and special-purpose sewing machines such as locks, nails, and sleeves, Japanese companies have become comprehensive. Break through European and American corporate technology barriers, self-contained system. On the other hand, as a result of the development of the world economy after more than one hundred years of development, the European and American companies, who are the "origins of sewing machines", have gradually become marginalized. Although its patented technology in terms of oil-free lubrication, low noise, and adjustable needle stroke is still the world's leading technology, in recent years, patent filing companies have had occasional efforts in addition to DuPont Inc. It has been difficult to trace.

The patents of sewing machine enterprises in China are mainly concentrated in the two fields of utility model and design. Among them, in the field of utility model patents, the share of domestic enterprises exceeds 90%, and the share of domestic enterprises of design patents is about 80%. From the perspective of the status of patent applications in recent years, these two proportions have further expanded. In 2008, 495 utility model patents filed by the industry were all domestic enterprises, and 420 of the 445 design patents declared by domestic companies were 420. The item has a share of 94.4%.

In terms of invention patents, there is a certain gap between domestic companies and Japanese companies. In 2000-2008, among all authorized invention patents, domestic enterprises obtained less than 30 items, which also included patents for special sewing or embroidery methods invented by non-industry companies or individuals, and the average amount of possession patents for industrial backbone enterprises was insufficient. 3 items. The author believes that there are three main reasons that lead to industry patents: First, compared with the Japanese sewing machine industry, the domestic sewing machine industry is weak, the development time is short, and the scientific and technological research and development capabilities are insufficient; second, the current authorized invention patents. There are a lot of Japanese companies without innovative patents. Japanese companies have used the development of the previous decades to accumulate a large number of mature technologies. Most of these technologies have already applied for patents in Japan, or they have become invalid. Since China implements the intellectual property system later than Japan, the time difference between the use of Japanese companies and the geographical characteristics of patents, these mature technologies are also declared as Chinese patents. This actually sets a large number of technical obstacles for the development of the domestic sewing machine industry; It is the lack of self-confidence of domestic enterprises in patent applications and their quick success.

It is well-known that invention patents need to be innovative in terms of design principles, but a large number of authorized Japanese patents for invention patents show that this principle innovation is not out of reach. An invention patent of a Japanese company on a sewing machine flywheel is taken as an example: The invention only slightly changed the structure of the manual sewing wheel of the sewing machine. The most important feature is that a groove is formed between the hand wheel and the hub to avoid the suture of the bobbin and the manual wheel or belt. Bonding. For domestic sewing machine companies, there are quite a few invention innovations like this, but unfortunately companies often declare their invention patents as utility model patents because of their lack of confidence in their innovation, or because of their short reporting cycle and quick results. Artificially discounted the product on the level of innovation and technical protection.

However, the good news is that in recent years, domestic sewing machine companies have apparently improved in the invention of patent applications. In 2008, among the 288 patents for inventions in domestic sewing machinery, the number of patents declared by domestic enterprises reached 101, an increase of 23.3% compared with 2007, and accounted for 35% of the total number of invention patents of the year. It can be seen that the domestic sewing companies have taken these issues seriously, increased their investment in innovation, and changed the patent application process.

Analysis and Development Trend of Patent Technology in Domestic Sewing Enterprises

From the standpoint of patent technology, the patents applied by China's sewing machine companies mainly focus on product appearance and function optimization and improvement, and the original invention design is less, and the patent declarer is mainly a few key enterprises in the industry, SMEs continue to declare There are not many patents. This is related to the fact that the current technological innovation system in China's sewing industry is not yet complete, and the process of product differentiation is slow.

From the perspective of the product areas covered by patents, in recent years, innovations in embroidery machines and parts have been relatively rapid. These two types of products have accounted for more than half of the patents in the field of design patents; and embroidery machine products have occupied the field of utility model patents. The quantity has exceeded 30%, and the invention patent has exceeded 50% (invention product invention announcement in 2008 was 54 items, accounting for 53.5% of domestic sewing machine invention patents, a year-on-year increase of 74.2%), showing China's sewing machine industry The effect of technological innovation that has continued for many years in the field of embroidery machines has begun to appear. This is evidenced by the declining demand in the international market in 2008 and the fact that the average export price of embroidery machines in China has risen sharply. (For the whole year of 2008, the export volume of China's sewing machine embroidery industry has decreased by 9.8%, but the export value has increased by 10.43%. ).

In the field of industrial sewing machines, the technological progress of domestic enterprises in recent years is very obvious. In addition to the significant increase in patent filings, technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises represented by Zhongshou Heavy Industries, Refinement, and Shupu have become active. The patents of these enterprises mainly focus on the special functions of special sewing machines and conventional models, and the quality of patented technologies. This is quite high, showing the good momentum of technological innovation in the industry.

According to patent data from 2006 to 2008, China's sewing machine industry has entered an accelerated period of intellectual property rights growth. It is worth noting that since China’s invention patents are applied only 18 months after the application, only utility models and appearance patents can basically achieve the year’s application year announcement, so the industry patent data for the invention has a distortion period of about two years. . In other words, at present, the latest data we have seen does not exceed the first half of 2007. From the perspective of the step-by-step growth characteristics of utility models and appearance patents in the industry, a large number of patents for inventions filed by our sewing machinery industry in 2007 and 2008 were also filed. Unannounced, it is expected that the industry will continue to maintain a high growth in the number of patents in the next two years. In terms of patents for inventions, it is likely to break the current pattern dominated by Japanese companies, and there will be situations in which China and Japan evenly divide or even surpass Japanese companies. With the guidance and promotion of the state and industry in corporate technological innovation and intellectual property, enterprises are investing more and more in technological innovation, the foundation is getting better and better, and the results will be more abundant. Therefore, China's sewing machine industry knowledge The phenomenon of high growth of property rights is likely to exist for a long time.