Recently, Gree took Oaks to court for patent infringement, begging Oaks to compensate 110 million yuan. This has set a record for the highest amount of patent compensation in the foreign electrical appliance industry. Now the court has accepted Gree’s representation against Oaks. Compared with his old rival Mei Mei, Gree seemed to have a very clear opinion of Oakes and scolded him for not only "stealing skills" but also "poaching talents". Gree stated that since 2010 to the present, Oaks has poached more than 300 key personnel of Gree Electric’s R&D, quality inspection and other departments through various illegal methods, and Oaks’s “poaching” and “patent infringement” seem to still exist To some extent, from 2015 to 2017 alone, the number of patent infringements filed by Oaks against Gree Electric reached 15. Oaks responded that Gree Electric does not have a patent called "integration of upper and lower water trays and bottom shells"; the models involved include more than 30 models including the 2017 new Athena series, which are all fictitious. Oaks' 2017 new product Athena was announced as early as 2015 and is not among the models involved in the lawsuit. Oaks also pointed out that because the competition between Gree and Oaks in the first-tier market is increasingly intense, Gree's complaint can be regarded as a "trading tool" to curb the growth measures of competitors.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Gree has filed a lawsuit against Oaks. As early as August 2015, Gree Electric sued Oaks on the grounds that a series of air-conditioning products produced by Oaks infringed on three of its patents. to the court, and one of these three patents was the patent involved in this case. At that time, after the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court determined that Oaks Company had infringed the copyright in the first instance, Oaks Company filed an appeal.
However, Oakes did not win the case. The Guangdong High Court made a final judgment, confirming that Oaks Company had established infringement and should immediately stop selling infringing air-conditioning products and compensate Gree Electric for economic losses of 2.3 million yuan. So it seems that the possibility of Oaks making a comeback this time is still slim.
In addition, Oaks was sued by Midea to the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court a year and a half ago for infringing the utility model patent rights of "double cross-flow air duct structure and vertical air conditioner indoor unit" . Although the court finally ruled that Oaks had infringed Midea's patent rights and should bear infringement liability according to law and compensate Midea for economic losses and fair expenses totaling 1 million yuan, it still did not stop Oaks from continuing to infringe on its rival's patents. The reasons before the eyes, the reasons, the reasons, the reasons, the reasons, the endless aftertaste. Judging from the 618 list released by JD.com, Gree ranks first in terms of air-conditioning sales, Midea ranks second, and Oaks, a brand that is not very well-known, once ranked third ahead of Haier. And if you look at it from the perspective of brand alone, Oaks's ranking is unimaginable. Objectively speaking, Oakes' so-called "cost-effectiveness" is basically "use-ism".
Some experts pointed out that Gree’s claim is more overwhelming as a brand appeal than as a “deal means”. As we all know, research and development has always burned money. As far as Gree is concerned, the funds invested in research and development every year in recent years have been between 4 billion and 5.5 billion, while the sales of air conditioners by peer Oaks in 2016 were only 5 billion. . The patent compensation of 2.3 million yuan was originally "time-consuming and thankless" for Gree, but it was nothing to Oaks' sales of 5 billion yuan.
It seems that the development of Gree is a bit like making a wedding dress for Oaks. No wonder Miss Dong is angry now.