18650 lithium battery cells

What is the current status of the patent technology layout of ternary materials for 18650 lithium battery cells in China?

Recently, at the 6th Council Meeting of the 6th China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, Secretary-General Liu Yanlong particularly emphasized the issue of patent technology layout of ternary materials for lithium batteries. He pointed out that under the hot industry trend of ternary lithium batteries, especially high-nickel ternary, many domestic cathode material companies are facing huge foreign patent fees in their development. On this issue, the association will hold a special seminar in the near future and take countermeasures to reduce the cost pressure in the development of enterprises.

So, what is the current status of the patent technology layout of ternary materials for lithium batteries in China?

Core patents need to "overtake on the curve"

Some professionals have conducted statistics on domestic and foreign patents in the field of ternary materials. The results show that: First, the development of domestic ternary materials started late, lacked basic and core patents, and there is still a big gap with Japanese and Korean companies, 3M Company in the United States, etc.

For example, on November 15, 2005, 3M obtained the US patent US6964828B2 and its family patent CN100403585C for NiCoMn ternary materials, which mainly limited the Ni content in NiCoMn and became the basic core patent of ternary materials, which has restricted the development of ternary materials in China's lithium battery industry to date.

Secondly, the patents around the modification of ternary materials are mainly for improving electrochemical performance, but the safety and cost issues have not been effectively broken through. In contrast to the rapid growth of invention patents for improving electrochemical performance, the number of applications for the safety and cost reduction of ternary materials has grown slowly. This also shows that under the circumstances where R&D investment has increased significantly and battery safety is very important, the safety and cost issues of ternary materials have not been effectively broken through.

Taking the invention patent "Preparation method of titanium sol-coated modified ternary positive electrode material" of a domestic research institute as an example, this invention patent modifies the ternary positive electrode material by optimizing the coating process, which can effectively improve the first coulomb efficiency and discharge specific capacity of the material, but has no significant improvement on other aspects such as the material's cycle performance. Moreover, the coating process also requires a large amount of alcohol, which has high requirements for process equipment and workshop conditions (explosion-proof workshops), and the recycling of alcohol requires additional processing costs.

Based on the above analysis, Battery China believes that there are two points that domestic cathode material companies need to focus on: First, domestic ternary material patent applications are relatively scattered, especially leading companies are less involved, and the overall research atmosphere is not strong. Domestic companies need to pay attention to the research and development of cathode materials and the protection of intellectual property rights; Second, there is a large room for development in the safety and cost issues of ternary materials. The layout of foreign applicants is not perfect. If domestic companies can increase R&D investment in these aspects and master core patents as soon as possible, they may be able to achieve "overtaking on the curve" in the field of ternary materials.

Patent licensing may be a helpless move

Industry consensus is that in addition to actively paying attention to independent research and development and intellectual property protection, patent licensing between companies is also an option for sustainable development of the industry. Battery China Network found that the recent patent layout of positive electrode material companies is as follows:

In January 2018 and November 2017, BASF announced that it had granted sublicenses to Ruixiang New Materials and Peking University Pioneer for patents related to nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) positive electrode materials from the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States. After the authorization, the two companies can manufacture, use, sell, promise to sell, distribute and import nickel-cobalt-manganese positive electrode materials in the US market.

On January 29, Dow Chemical Company and Shanghai Huayi (Group) Company signed a technology licensing agreement, under which Dow non-exclusively authorized the core technologies of positive electrode materials for two 18650 lithium battery cells: lithium iron manganese phosphate (LMFP) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC).

From the above authorization and licensing information, as domestic power battery and ternary material companies accelerate their entry into the international market, some domestic ternary material companies have to strengthen their patent layout to obtain relevant operating freedom and cooperate with battery customers to cope with strict foreign qualification reviews.

Tang Shunguo, chairman and general manager of Ruixiang New Materials, said, "We highly respect intellectual property rights and attach importance to the patent sub-licensing of nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode materials. This sub-license is of great strategic significance to both us and our downstream customers."

In fact, there are very few domestic ternary material companies that purchase patents. There are two main reasons: first, the cost of purchasing patents is high, and small and medium-sized enterprises can hardly afford it; second, domestic policies are relatively loose, especially the relevant legal system is not perfect, and some companies are lucky.

Industry insiders believe that patent licensing and patent disputes between domestic and foreign companies will become more and more normalized. Therefore, whether domestic companies adopt patent licensing or take a detour, accelerating patent layout is a necessary guarantee for the sustainable development of the industry.

Revelation of the life and death of lithium iron phosphate

There is no doubt that domestic ternary material companies can only become bigger and stronger on a global scale if they eliminate the risk of patent infringement.

People who are familiar with the development of the domestic lithium battery industry must remember the "patent invalidation case" in the lithium iron phosphate battery industry in 2012. The three companies that claimed to have the patent for lithium iron phosphate battery technology, including Hydro-Quebec in Canada, were ruled invalid by the China Patent Reexamination Board.

It is understood that the patent application of the Canadian company covers almost all aspects of the current lithium iron phosphate battery production technology. If this patent is followed, most domestic battery manufacturers are infringing. And if it is a foreign party, it means that if Chinese battery manufacturers produce lithium iron phosphate batteries in the future, they will need to pay patent fees to the patent holder. The foreign party's asking price is also very high: a one-time payment of 10 million US dollars in patent entry fees or 2,500 US dollars per ton of lithium iron phosphate. Fortunately, this patent, which is crucial to the development of China's lithium iron phosphate battery industry and new energy vehicle industry, ended in failure with the foreign party.

However, many experiences and lessons in this case are worth thinking about by colleagues in the domestic lithium battery industry. Under the current hot development situation of new energy vehicles, the leading companies in the domestic lithium battery industry, especially the leading companies that aspire to participate in international market competition, should learn from this and deploy the core patent technology of ternary materials in a more long-term and strategic manner.

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