Speaking of Lenovo's independent innovation, Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board of directors of Lenovo Group, told this "past incident": In the early years, Lenovo tried to sell products overseas, but someone immediately came to collect patent fees. The first person to ask for patent fees was IBM back then. The last content of the Lenovo-IBM merger agreement negotiation is intellectual property rights. In the agreement between Lenovo and IBM, the patent discussions were very detailed and thoughtful. Because of this, Lenovo has encountered almost no infringement lawsuits in the past year since the merger.
After Lenovo acquired IBM, it formed a global R&D network in Raleigh in the United States, Yamato in Japan, and China in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu. Lenovo also has a global 3G design team with a R&D team of nearly 2,000 people. It spends 2.5 billion yuan and more than 300 million US dollars in R&D funding every year.
Every key process of Lenovo's development is related to technological innovation. In the 1980s, Lenovo's leading product was called Lenovo Hanka. This is where Lenovo got its name. It solved the problem of typing Chinese characters on PC and laid a solid foundation for Lenovo's first step in development. In 1990, Lenovo began to independently develop PCs. Yang Yuanqing said frankly that Lenovo has not always followed the technical route, and has also developed agency and other businesses in the meantime. Yang Yuanqing believes that for an enterprise, being able to survive and develop is the last word. Without sufficient profit support, it is unrealistic to invest in R&D.
Now Lenovo has the ability to invest in R&D, but how to make R&D personnel stay and continue working happily? He Zhiqiang, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Lenovo Group, said, "We are about to release a new global technical support system. It is to give those who are willing to do R&D and good at R&D a step to develop and ensure that they have good treatment. For example, Lenovo has a chief scientist, and IBM has "F"-level employees. "F" is the chief scientist, who is approved by the CEO. The salary is the same as that of a VP (vice president). They have the income of a VP, but do not have the support of a VP. It is very important for the system to allow R&D personnel to have a development stage.”
Lenovo has gained a lot from being an agent, OEM to independent R&D. He Zhiqiang revealed that through independent research and development, the gross profit margin of Lenovo's notebooks has increased by about 5%. The mobile phone has changed from OEM to independent research and development, and the gross profit margin has increased by 10%. This is a considerable gain for the enterprise. After the gross profit increases, part of it can be converted into the company's net profit rate, and the other part can become the "capital" to lower the price and sell to win the market. He Zhiqiang believes that these are the rewards of Lenovo’s continuous investment in R&D over the past five years.
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Lenovo has nearly 5,000 patents and patent applications worldwide, of which more than 2,000 are invention patents.
We have applied for 2,000 applications at the National Patent Office of China, of which 1,100 have been authorized, and half (more than 1,000) are invention patents.