Only by mastering the core technology in our own hands can China's lithium battery industry dominate the world!
But people seem to have overlooked an important issue - the lack of core patents. The incident that ZTE Corporation was sanctioned by the United States not long ago made people deeply realize how heartbreaking the lack of core technology is behind the prosperous economy!
When the Americans waved the big stick of trade sanctions, we were able to give tit for tat countermeasures, which won the applause of the Chinese people, but the Americans immediately resorted to sanctions against ZTE, We were caught off guard immediately. In order to save ZTE, we had to make a huge compromise to the United States, but even so, the United States still did not release its sanctions on ZTE in the end. The lessons of the ZTE incident are profound, making Chinese people realize that at any time, the lack of core technology will put us in a passive state controlled by others.
In the field of lithium batteries, let's first look at the patent issue of lithium iron phosphate. The foundation entered China and filed an invention patent application with the State Intellectual Property Office of China, which was authorized in September 2008.
Since then, LiFePO4 material has quickly occupied the power battery market by virtue of its low cost and high safety advantages, and the market demand is increasing year by year. The three rights companies CNRS and Montreal United require all manufacturers of lithium iron phosphate materials in China to pay them a patent entry fee of US$10 million or a patent fee of US$2,500 per ton, which has exceeded the material manufacturer’s per ton of lithium iron phosphate The profits that can be obtained are undoubtedly a disaster for the domestic lithium iron phosphate industry.
 . A final ruling was made - the patent on lithium iron phosphate held by Hydro-Québec was invalid! Still not reconciled, Canada's Hydro-Québec and other rights holders appealed to the Beijing High Court. In 2014, the Beijing High Court finally issued a ruling to uphold the original judgment, allowing China's lithium iron phosphate material manufacturers to escape disaster.
After we thought that the lithium iron phosphate incident was over, the wind direction of the domestic power battery market changed suddenly. meta material. In terms of ternary materials, we still face the problem of lack of core patents. At present, the core patents of ternary materials are in the hands of 3M and Argonne National Laboratory in the United States. It is generally believed that the patents held by 3M are conventional. Stoichiometric NMC materials, while the patent of Argonne National Laboratory is a layered lithium-rich material. At present, the NMC materials with conventional stoichiometric ratios are basically used in power batteries, including Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Hitachi, etc. Mainstream cell manufacturers, such as Umicore in Belgium, L&F in South Korea, SK and Ruixiang in Hunan, and other mainstream material manufacturers have purchased relevant patent authorizations from 3M.
In the international market, the lack of core technology patents will make it difficult to move forward.
China's lithium-ion battery industry still lacks core patents, which will become a huge shortcoming in the face of competition from international giants. Domestic lithium-ion battery material manufacturers and battery manufacturers as well as upstream and downstream enterprises of lithium battery production need to learn lessons from the ZTE incident, invest more time and funds in the research and development of core technologies, and carry out the layout of core patents as soon as possible to avoid Repeat the same mistakes.