Qualcomm's 20 years in China is a 20-year period in which China’s mobile phone industry has grown and expanded.

If Chinese companies were also accused of “copy to China” in the previous few years, “innovation” has been regarded as a guide for survival. During the two sessions, Ma Yun, chairman of Alibaba, which is the largest commodity circulation platform in China, screamed "a counterfeit product like drunk driving."

To choose an industry as a representative of China's innovation industry must be the mobile phone industry. A series of figures and remarks can be used as evidence: In 2010, only one of the top 10 mobile phone manufacturers in the world was a Chinese company. In 2016, among the top ten global mobile phone manufacturers, there were seven companies from China. Lei Jun, chairman of the National People's Congress and Xiaomi Company, mentioned that "patents are the rules of the game that Chinese companies must abide by in participating in world trade competition." In January, the State Intellectual Property Office published the ranking of China's invention patent applications in 2016. Most of the companies with higher ranks came from the communications industry, especially the mobile phone industry. “The reason why intellectual property performance is more prominent in the communications industry is that Because the smart phone industry is one of the most technologically integrated and patent-intensive areas, a modern smart phone includes communications technology, display technology, semiconductor chip technology, human-computer interaction technology, application software, and many other related technologies. About 100,000 items are involved.” All this, in the minds of Zhao Bin, the senior vice president of legal and government affairs at Qualcomm in the US, felt that he was honored because the companies on the list were all Qualcomm’s partners without exception.

As the saying goes, "The clever woman can't be without rice." If innovation ability is the leader of the enterprise “attacking the city and destroying the city”, then R&D investment is the military's munitions to maintain innovation capabilities. Qualcomm is a successful example of occupying industry-leading highlands through high R&D investment. It brings to more than 120 Chinese partners. In addition to mobile communications technology and industry chain, there is also an innovative revelation.

Qu Bin's Senior Vice President of Law and Government Affairs Zhao Bin

Qualcomm's Innovation Tour: "Sali Gold Rush" again and again

A mobile phone integrates thousands of patents, many of which were created by Qualcomm. According to research institute iSuppli, Qualcomm has been the world's largest wireless semiconductor supplier since the first quarter of 2007, and it has been maintained until now. In 2014, there were more than 1 billion Android smartphones equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors on the market.

"Innovation is Qualcomm's DNA. Qualcomm's innovation drive comes from R&D investment." Zhao Bin, in two words, tells Qualcomm's innovative story.

In fact, Qualcomm is a very young company founded in 1985, a year later than China’s Lenovo and Haier. However, Qualcomm is definitely a technology-based company.

Qualcomm came from a small American city called San Diego. When the company was founded, seven scientists and university professors sat together and said that we wanted to provide high-quality communications (Qualocmm's name came from Quality Communications, meaning high-quality communications. ), we must insist on research and innovation. For more than 30 years, Qualcomm has become the company with the largest number of core patented technologies in the field of wireless communications.

Today, if you walk into the headquarters of Qualcomm, you will face a large wall of wisdom (also known as the patent wall). More than a thousand patents are displayed on the wall, and this is only less than one percent of Qualcomm's patents. At present, Qualcomm has invested a total of US$44 billion in R&D, which has been increasing year by year. The annual R&D investment accounts for more than 20% of revenue.

The emphasis on technology has penetrated into the blood of every Qualcomm employee. Qualcomm has an extremely interesting internal culture. The headquarters staff has a logo on the access control card called the "Inventor logo", which is marked with four different levels:

Among them, "IP Coutributor" states that employees have applied for at least one patent, but have not yet been approved; "Inventor" said that employees have contributed at least one patent to the company; "Intellectual Property Rights Mentor (IP Mentor) means that employees not only own patents, but also help colleagues obtain patents; and the highest level of "Master Inventor" shows that employees have become a contributor to the progress of the industry in a subdivided area. If Qualcomm employees get these certifications, they are often more valuable than job promotion.

Having input often means there is risk. In the early development of Qualcomm, Dr. Ivan Jacobs, the founder of the company, even brushed his credit card to pay salaries for the engineers. Once the company's sales revenues were made into the account, it was put into the research and development of technology. Qualcomm certainly knows the truth of dedication. Zhao Bin said, “Starting from the founders, the company’s top executives all have a sense that science and R&D are a process of constant adjustment.” Silicon Valley once issued a special business research report, bluntly 75 More than 5% of R&D investment will fail, and no commercial benefits can be obtained.

For example, if a pen is developed, it will not be produced in the end. The previous R&D investment will be completely ineffective; or, the pen can be made and may not necessarily be brought to the market because marketing is a re-creation process that requires marketing. Strategies to persuade customers to accept your products; in addition to after-sales services. Together, these costs make the inventor unsure whether they can finally recover costs, generate profits, and make new innovations.

However, "the process of patenting is a trial and error process." Zhao Bin said a turn, if the first day, an engineering and technical personnel to come up with a less mature program, because there are one or two shortcomings are immediately denied, then the idea It can never be a product.

At this time, we need to test the company's system. A loose environment is not useful at the moment. If a company wants to develop in the long-term, it must create an atmosphere in which employees are immersed in it. They also know that their mistakes will be tolerated, give themselves time for trial and error, and correct mistakes, and finally allow ideas to improve.

Today, Qualcomm has accumulated a huge amount of patented technology and has also experienced a difficult process of gold rushing in the sand.

R & D secrets, the left hand "is not too fast," the right hand "people-oriented"

"The future has come, but it is not yet popular." This famous phrase is appropriate in the field of science and technology. Zhao Bin said, “Qualcomm will look forward to the problems that the industry may face in the next five or ten years and the technologies needed, and invest a lot of resources to carry out early research and development work.”

It is precisely because of this gene, coupled with insight into technology, that Qualcomm has been investing in 5G R&D since more than a decade ago.

Qualcomm 5G is the cornerstone of next-generation communications technology: In the era of the Internet of Things, all the application technologies we have talked about, such as deep learning, smart cities, smart homes, drones, robots, VR, AR, etc., will be available without 5G support. It is difficult to truly implement its function. At present, the industry has reached a consensus that by 2020, 5G technology will be commercialized. According to statistics from Qualcomm, by 2035, the value created by the 5G value chain itself will be approximately US$3.5 trillion, and 22 million new jobs can be created, which is a global impact.

One of the important characteristics of 5G is bandwidth, which requires the use of limited spectrum resources to transmit the maximum amount of data. The second feature is the shorter delay, and the third is the massive interconnection of all things. Qualcomm's 3G-based 5G new air interface connection technology has achieved a breakthrough success. The Qualcomm X50's 5G modem has also made breakthroughs. Its greatest feature is the simultaneous application of millimeter-wave and gigabit technology, which can be used under millimeter-wave conditions. LTE communication supporting the 3GPP 5G new air interface shortens the delay to milliseconds.

“This is a milestone development. Both millimeter wave and gigabit are the latest technologies and can realize the application of these two technologies. It is not far from the true improvement and maturity of 5G technology.”

There are innate innovative companies like Qualcomm, and there are also many innovative and entrepreneurial companies at this stage. For Binchuang, Zhao Bin came up with the secret of Qualcomm:

First of all, we must have a big picture. Innovation must not be a small, cautious act, or a product of worms and insects. It must have a long-term vision, so it should not stop at small technologies and products.

Second, talent is very important for start-ups. This is an important strategy that Qualcomm can share. Since the very beginning, Qualcomm has assembled the best engineering and technical personnel with cutting-edge technology to participate in, occupy the commanding heights of technology and keep it.

Third, an outstanding talent strategy is not only to find these talents, but also to pay attention to these talents, retain and develop them. In other words, the company needs to create a very active and open atmosphere for this, remove the concept of hierarchy and various unnecessary rules and requirements, give employees more freedom, especially for the technicians to provide the most relaxed space. They can maximize their talent. At the same time, respecting their wisdom products and labor achievements is like Qualcomm's wisdom wall, in fact, to motivate employees rather than show off.

According to Zhao Bin, the company needs to create an active and open atmosphere for retaining innovative talents, such as Qualcomm's wisdom wall, in fact, to motivate employees rather than show off.

Qualcomm in China: "R&D is not for a Shelf"

“Over the past few years, there has been a certain degree of misunderstanding on the part of Qualcomm, and some people think that Qualcomm’s business model has hampered market competition and hindered the development of Chinese companies.” Zhao Bin expressed concern.

However, the truth is not.

More than 20 years ago, when Qualcomm entered China, it was regarded as a market with huge potential. Qualcomm is willing to invest and deploy here, and is willing to cooperate with more and more Chinese manufacturers. Today, Qualcomm and 120 companies in China have reached a patent licensing agreement, with services ranging from 3G to 4G, from mobile phones and tablets to modules.

In China, Qualcomm’s business model is open. “R&D is not to put the patented technology on the shelf or to look good on the patented wall. It is to be applied to various scenes of life.” Zhao Bin stressed: “We do not compete with Chinese mobile phone manufacturers. Instead, we put the best Technology sharing is used by these partners to enrich the product line of partners.” For example, Qualcomm had also been a mobile phone manufacturer. As a result, it had a competitive relationship with other mobile phone manufacturers and eventually chose to abandon the mobile phone business and share the patent.

Qualcomm’s business model in China can be summarized as: assisting the development of upstream and downstream enterprises in China, and providing partners with technical support and services through the patent licensing model, allowing their products to be differentiated and competitive, and at the same time fostering together with these companies. Industry chain.

"Compared to many years ago, strong international brands monopolized the Chinese market; now, Chinese companies have made great strides in domestic and foreign markets. This reversal is inextricably linked to the support of Qualcomm." Zhao Bin said that IC Insights, a well-known semiconductor market research agency in the United States, statistics In 2016, the number of mobile phone manufacturers shipped in the top 12 globally, of which 8 are Chinese enterprises. In the list of invention patent applications published in July 2016, the top 10 are mostly mobile phone companies. Companies such as ZTE and Huawei not only gained dominant shares in developing countries such as Asia Pacific and Latin America, but also signed cooperation agreements with leading global operators, enabling Chinese manufacturers to manufacture and use Qualcomm mobile phones and system equipment to sail into the markets of developed countries.

In addition to the above intangible intellectual property rights, Qualcomm is able to prop up a tangible platform to support Chinese companies.

Before and after Qualcomm made a lot of investments in China, including the Shanghai Testing Center, Shenzhen Innovation Center, Qualcomm (China) Holding Co., Ltd. in Guizhou, and Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., a joint venture. In July 2014, SMIC and Qualcomm collaborated closely on 28nm process and wafer fabrication services. In December of the same year, SMIC succeeded in manufacturing the 28nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. These are the close cooperation between Qualcomm and Chinese companies.

For example, Shenzhen Innovation Center, which has a world-class laboratory equipped with the most advanced test equipment, can provide accurate testing and rapid diagnosis of electromagnetic interference for mobile terminals. At present, there are only two cutting-edge devices in the world, one at the headquarters in San Diego and one in Shenzhen.

Here, we may wish to take a look at the path of development of Chinese companies. We can find a law: the path of association in China is called “trade and technology”. Early in the trade, trade was started after a certain scale, and then technology was developed. The route of Haier in China is called "industrial and trading technology." A common feature of these two routes is that technology is placed at the end. There are a large number of companies in China that are Lenovo and Haier style. Although the trade and manufacturing are very large, the core technology is late. Qualcomm is called "technician" and it can find factories to do manufacturing. However, in order to meet the requirements of Chinese partners, Qualcomm has started to invest in the field of production testing, in order to serve Chinese customers better and faster.

Shanghai's test center is an example and Qualcomm is speeding up its efforts in semiconductor chip testing. “We have invested a lot in this, and we have received strong support from the Shanghai Municipal Government. In the future, it will play a very important role in the entire Chinese market.” Zhao Bin, for example, said that in the past few years, Qualcomm has provided some major technologies to China. Core International helps to accelerate its ability to produce high-end 28nm process chips. In recent years, SMIC's output has been increasing. Shanghai's test center can locally support Xiaolong products for testing, saving a lot of manpower and material costs, transportation costs, and localization and product production. effectiveness.

“This is not simply to invest money in setting up a test center. It makes sense to build such a testing entity.” Qualcomm owns a significant portion of its patents, which are basic patents. It is a patent involving wireless communication technologies, such as the Shanghai Test Center. The factories that are tested in this way will have a lot of process technologies, which are all very important technological skills and decades of accumulated experience.

Over time, Qualcomm’s help to Chinese manufacturers has in turn been highly recognized. Qualcomm (China) Holding Co., Ltd., located in Guizhou, has historical significance for China and Qualcomm, which is in line with the country's strategic layout. “Because the country needs to develop big data cloud computing in Guizhou, and the cloud computing industry and emerging industries need a lot of servers, and the server chip market in China and even the world is now monopolized by individual companies. China hopes to be a high-tech enterprise like Qualcomm. Cooperation is a recognition of Qualcomm's technological capabilities. Qualcomm can also share advanced technologies with China and allow China to develop its own capabilities in the design, production, and sales of server chips that meet the needs of the Chinese market in a relatively short period of time."

Chinese innovation on the road

China is building a business environment based on the protection of intellectual property rights. During the two sessions, after the government work report made the deployment of “developing trials for the comprehensive management reform of intellectual property rights and improving the system for the creation, protection, and use of intellectual property rights”, Premier Li Keqiang once again used “inside the knife” to emphasize that intellectual property rights “must be self-revolutionary.” In the "Outline for the Development of Innovation-Driven Strategies" and the State Council's "13th Five-Year-Five-Year Protection of Intellectual Property Rights", intellectual property protection has been incorporated into the top-level design.

It can be foreseen that the implementation of intellectual property protection as a strategy for strengthening the country will benefit many Chinese companies and the results obtained in the future are just around the corner. “Innovation, especially innovation at the national strategic level, is not only due to the individual's whimsical thinking. It has an impact on a certain industry, an industry, and even the human lifestyle. Guaranteeing that innovation requires the establishment of a system This is why the Chinese government has put the innovation strategy as a top-level design.” Zhao Bin said that the effectiveness of the government in innovators eating the “centering pill” is obvious:

First, to ensure that innovation is not violated; second, to ensure that innovators receive reasonable remuneration as expected; and third, to encourage innovation to further innovation.

Caption: Zhao Bin stated that Qualcomm puts the remuneration of patent licenses into a new round of innovation, and thus forms a positive cycle. Whether it is the state, the economy, or the enterprise itself, it can be positively developed.

Prior to this, many Chinese companies “held their eyes on Silicon Valley” and they did not attach enough importance to the competitive element of “innovation”. They neglected the awareness and management of intellectual property rights and were limited in their development. Now, more and more Chinese companies have benefited from the system of intellectual property protection, and have continued to intensify innovation after they have tasted the sweetness.

Zhao Bin commented that companies like ZTE, Huawei, etc., which can continue to develop in the mobile phone industry, benefit from the protection of intellectual property rights. They are never afraid to use the judicial system to protect their own intellectual property rights. This change reflects the Chinese enterprises. The process of growth, and the improvement of the level of intellectual property protection in the government and judicial systems.

Qualcomm is a beneficiary of the intellectual property protection mechanism. Because the patent is not like a trade secret can be locked in a safe, it has been open to the world for everyone since the first minute of approval, can be copied and imitated, therefore, there must be a national level intellectual property protection The mechanism as a guarantee can enable the beneficiaries of intellectual property rights to pay corresponding rewards, and such remuneration will enable such authorizers such as Qualcomm to invest in a new round of innovation and form a positive cycle, whether it is national or economic or The enterprise itself can get positive development.

Qualcomm is also an active champion of intellectual property protection mechanisms and has gradually expanded its presence in China. Previously, Qualcomm's traditional business only existed in the field of mobile phones or wireless communications. Now it has been expanded into many new areas, especially the next-generation smart cars, massive Internet of Things, and VR/AR.

In contrast, domestic enterprises, under the construction of China's “One Belt and One Road,” are not satisfied with the status quo that is only dominant in the domestic market. After accumulating high strength, they begin to sail to the sea on a large scale. And intellectual property is the passport to the sea. Intellectual property rights are not only the "just-needed" of Chinese enterprises' own innovation and development, but also the essential "standards" in the process of enterprises going overseas and expanding the land.

“This is not a one-by-one tactic,” said Zhao Bin, starting from the point of view, a company without patents would be caught in an awkward position when going to sea—because it may infringe on the intellectual property rights of others’ homes without knowing it. So it must have its own patent layout.

Zhao Bin came up with Qualcomm’s experiences in the sea and gave these companies three suggestions:

The first is to have a patented layout, to set clear focus areas, to clarify their main business goals, rather than all the work to be done, unrealistic. There are also ways to achieve quick results. Companies can also obtain patent licenses through cooperation with others, even through cross-licensing, which can offset part of the costs. However, it is very important for companies to hold their own core technologies and patents.

In addition, in addition to developing their own patents and protecting their own intellectual property rights, they must also learn to respect the intellectual property rights of others. This is a shortfall for many Chinese companies going to sea. “Be sure to have a clear understanding of the markets your product is involved in, such as which patents it involves, the licensing fees it pays, and the licenses, rather than pretense, that is not the philosophy of modern business. This concept is also not feasible for sea-going operations, and it must also be laid out from an early stage."

The third is cooperation with international companies such as Qualcomm, and all of us work together to explore the international market. Qualcomm has a department called Qualcomm Global Plan. There is a team of experts in the department, including specialized engineers, law, marketing, etc. Their task is to help partners go out to the sea. This is actually a kind of targeted customized service. It can be said that Qualcomm's innovative service model is an important supporting force supporting the further development of Chinese technology companies.

The theme of this year's World Intellectual Property Day is “Innovation and Change in Life”. Zhao Bin said that he is very supportive of this slogan: “The ultimate goal of intellectual property rights or patents is to realize wide application, bring benefits to enterprises, bring benefits to society, and help people Bringing improvement, more broadly speaking, is to bring new experiences to mankind, so it is closely related to life.” And this may be the innovative meaning of Qualcomm and many Chinese companies – technology will ultimately serve Yuren.

China is today the second largest economy in the world. Maybe one day, when China becomes the largest economy, economists will ask questions like this when they are studying all kinds of success factors: “How many of these are from corporate innovation? These technologies are social and cultural. How much help does progress and consumer life bring?” Qualcomm and his Chinese partners should love this question.