Sea troll: micro-internationalization of hidden risk and micro-letters patent, Tencent-IT information
The Internet patent technology innovation Watch report (2015) showed that by the end of 2015, Tencent's patents was 9,540, ranked first in the domestic Internet companies, China and the United States market 1830 patents. Micro letter accused has opened the domestic overseas APP out hidden risks. Recently, the famous "patent trolls" company Uniloc micro sued the United States East of Texas Federal District Court, thought that the voice group chat, video chat, infringed on its conference call held two patents related to the system.
The lawsuit just happen to home APP is the size of the Red Sea as the sea gold rush. Media publication of the China Sea charts of APP& game show, APP China Sea had involved in 24 categories, covering 86 brands of mobile phone hardware.
337 investigation won first software product considered by the contact symbol technologies CEO Wang Jialiang, Uniloc is just a beginning, as Chinese companies abroad is getting bigger, and will increasingly be targeted by overseas companies. It also sounded alarm bells – intellectual property rights of Chinese enterprises are entering the overseas market an insurmountable barrier, strengthening the original should be core elements of corporate China.
Micro letter being sued
Tencent is encountered an opponent who has extensive litigation experience.
Public information, Uniloc was originally founded in 1992 in Australia, a software company, and later focused on licensing, due to sue Microsoft for a gun and red. So far, Uniloc and its subsidiaries have been in the United States about 200 cases of patent litigation. Recently sued Whatsapp, Line, Viber social product, in March this year, Huawei also launched the suit.
Uniloc asked the Court to confirm that Tencent micro two application function which is named "system and method for Conference calls" two counts of patent infringement and compensate the loss of orders for Tencent, terminate your use of infringing patents. Micro letter says not to respond to this event.
The Internet patent technology innovation Watch report (2015) (hereinafter the report) show that by the end of 2015, Tencent's patents was 9,540, ranked first in the domestic Internet companies, China and the United States market 1830 patents. Even so, the report points out that, due to the current number of patents between the Internet and traditional communications firms gap, when it comes to mobile terminals for commercial product development, will face the traditional communications business had amassed a large patent infringement litigation. Competitors may use legal means, constraints on mobile Internet enterprises.
Ma has repeatedly put forward "app is internationalization of Tencent's only opportunity." Tencent first-quarter display, micro and WeChat merged months reached 762 million active accounts, but officials have not publicly overseas, the number of users. In fact, due to WhatsApp, strong competition from overseas rivals such as Line, internationalization of little micro-letter.
According to Onavo and other institutions market data shows that Tencent in United States coverage only of the user 1%, is mainly confined to the overseas Chinese community. As Tencent sea "trump cards", will again be "patent trolls" company's infringement litigation, no doubt to cast a shadow on the process of internationalization.
Wang Jialiang analysis, specifically the Uniloc patent infringement lawsuit may require only authorization or pay a certain percentage of license fees, that Tencent is still relatively simple. But these products in a way and some Product Line, WhatsApp close overseas intellectual property means of commercial competition are likely to be rivals or tools. Once the encounter is not bad money competitor sued to stop infringement or exit the United States market, it will seriously affect the pace of internationalization.
"Of course, the United States damages are very high, and tens of billions of dollars, attorneys ' fees to millions, even if reconciliation has to pay a large settlement. From possible losses abroad any patent case should not be underestimated. "Wang Jialiang further explained that the United States lawsuit the whole environment is quite fair and transparent, both sides need to propose the most favorable evidence. For Tencent, current can take many measures, such as non-infringement complaint products. Including Tencent and if they have the appropriate patent or consider patents to take over, realize the Uniloc teleconference system patent counterclaim.
"Team China" challenge
2014 APP market blowout, APP developers unprecedented expanded steadily, some Internet companies started going overseas at this time, APP "in commemoration of" the birth and growing. Touch treasures, UC, APUS and a number of overseas players was born, "Red Sea" brings new excitement to the domestic developers.
According to the report, current Android APP covers the overseas users tools such 51.7%, efficiency in production also accounted for more than 30% of the industry market share. However, overseas market regardless of politics, law, socio-cultural or user habits are entirely different from domestic, app on the Sea face many challenges.
Zhang Tao tech CMO lanxu told the 21st century business Herald reporter, it is precisely because the tools and game APP generally not cultural, religious and other environmental constraints, do not need to retain the business complex of the local operational support, you can quickly open market, sea stepping stone.
"Some deeply tragic enterprise market competition, China first eyes to India, Indonesia and other emerging markets. Time the local market and the 3-5 of China's market, which makes sea of China's domestic enterprises are more likely to be mobile Internet market ' transplant ', occupying and layouts in advance. The representatives have Eggplant pass, UC, APUS, and so on. "However, in his view, current has become the most competitive in the area of the Red Sea, small teams have little chance.
In fact, with the sea corporate direction from previous tools, games, etc, expanding into areas such as e-commerce, video, the Internet, finance, music and other content, services, faced more severe challenges of localization.
Although more and more sailing team also created a local team overseas, but very few Chinese companies can play the fans overseas economies. Sea enterprise also educating, Flash Keyboard recently in countries rising downloads, localization is the most important principle. In front of the various language versions, the team will test different input methods, culture, social aspects of the Internet conducted extensive testing to ensure that products and local alike.
In addition to the base of the language problem, and overseas legal and culturally also hide many mined areas. The end of 2015, Google Play used to crack down on piracy and cheat the game, because brush list, copy violation, hundreds of games in the Southeast Asian region alone suffered under the plane. For example, overseas users personal privacy protection, when the APP needs to use cameras, microphones, sensitive directory permissions when users should be very cautious.
出海就遇专利流氓：
微信国际化暗藏风险 -
微信,专利,
腾讯 - IT资讯
《互联网技术创新专利观察报告（2015）》显示，截至2015年年底，腾讯公司的专利数量为9540件，在国内互联网公司中位居第一，其中国和美国国市场专利1830件。微信海外被诉揭开了国内APP出海暗藏的风险。近日，著名的“专利流氓”公司Uniloc将微信告上了美国德克萨斯州东部联邦地区法院，认为微信的语音群聊、视频群聊功能，侵犯了其持有的与电话会议系统相关的两项专利。
这起诉讼恰好发生在红海之中的国内APP正规模地海淘金之际。媒体发布的《中国APP&游戏出海排行榜》显示，中国APP出海已经涉及24个分类，覆盖了86个品牌的手机硬件。
国内首例软件产品337调查胜诉方触宝科技CEO王佳梁认为，Uniloc只是一个开始，随着中国公司在海外越做越大，也会有越来越多被海外公司盯上。这也给中国企业敲响了警钟——知识产权是进入海外市场不可逾越的壁垒，加强原创应该成为中国企业出海的核心要素。
微信被诉
腾讯遭遇的是一个有着丰富诉讼经验的对手。
公开资料显示，Uniloc最初是1992年成立于澳大利亚的一家软件公司，后来专注于专利授权事务，因起诉微软一炮而红。迄今为止，Uniloc及其子公司已经在美国发起约200起专利诉讼。不久前曾起诉过Whatsapp、Line、Viber等社交产品，今年3月，它也向华为发起了诉讼。
Uniloc要求法院确认腾讯微信两大应用功能构成对其名为“进行电话会议的系统与方法”两项专利侵权，赔偿其损失，判令腾讯终止使用侵权专利等。微信方面表示暂不回应此事件。
《互联网技术创新专利观察报告（2015）》（以下简称《报告》）显示，截至2015年年底，腾讯公司的专利数量为9540件，在国内互联网公司中位居第一，其中国和美国国市场专利1830件。即便如此，《报告》指出，由于目前互联网企业与传统通讯企业之间的专利数量差距较大，只要涉及移动终端的商业产品开发，必然会面临来自于传统通讯企业已经积累的大量专利的侵权诉讼风险。竞争对手随时可能采用法律手段，对移动互联网企业进行掣肘。
马化腾曾多次提出“微信是腾讯国际化的唯一机会”。腾讯一季报显示，微信和WeChat的合并月活跃账户数达到7.62亿，但官方从未公开过海外用户数量。事实上，由于受到WhatsApp、Line等海外劲敌的强力竞争，微信的国际化之路收效甚微。
据Onavo等机构的市场数据表明，腾讯在美国的用户覆盖率仅为1%，基本局限在海外华人圈内。作为腾讯出海的“王牌”，此间又遭“专利流氓”公司的侵权诉讼，无疑给其国际化进程蒙上一层阴影。
王佳梁分析认为，专门打专利侵权官司的Uniloc可能要求只是授权或者付一定比例授权费，这对腾讯相对还是比较简单的。但微信这类产品在模式上与海外一些产品比如Line、WhatsApp比较接近，知识产权很可能成为对手进行商业竞争的手段或者工具。一旦碰到不差钱的竞争对手起诉，要求停止侵权或者退出美国市场，则会严重影响其国际化步伐。
“当然，美国赔偿金非常高，动辄上千万上亿美元，律师费也要上百万，即使最终和解也要付巨额和解金。从可能带来的损失来看，海外任何一次专利案都不可小觑。”王佳梁进一步解释道，在美国打官司整体环境还是比较公平透明的，双方都需要提出对自己最有利的证据。对于腾讯而言，当前可以采取很多措施，比如申诉产品不侵权。包括腾讯如果自己有相应的专利，或者考虑通过专利收购，实现对Uniloc电话会议系统专利的反诉。
“中国队”的挑战
2014年国内APP市场井喷，APP开发者队伍空前壮大，一些互联网公司在此时开始走向海外，APP“中国队”诞生并日渐壮大。触宝、UC、APUS等一批海外弄潮儿由此诞生，给“红海”中的国内开发者带来了新的兴奋点。
根据上述报告，当前国内APP覆盖了海外Android用户工具类的51.7%，效率、摄影产品也都占到行业市场份额的30%以上。然而，海外市场无论政治形态、法律规则、社会文化还是用户习惯等都与国内大相径庭，app出海面临诸多挑战。
掌淘科技CMO兰旭告诉21世纪经济报道记者，正是因为工具类和游戏类APP普遍没有文化、宗教等环境限制，业务维持也不需要复杂的本地运营支撑，就可以快速打开市场，成为出海敲门砖。
“一些深感中国市场竞争惨烈的企业最先将目光瞄向印度、印尼等新兴市场。当地市场与中国有3到5年的市场时间差，这让出海的中国企业们更容易将国内移动互联网市场模式‘移植’，进行提前占位和布局。这其中的代表有茄子快传、UC、APUS等。”然而，在他看来，当前这些领域已经成为竞争最激烈的红海，中小团队基本没有什么机会了。
事实上，随着出海企业从之前的以工具、游戏等方向为主，不断拓展到诸如电商、视频、互联网金融、音乐等内容、服务领域，所面临的本土化挑战也更为严峻。
虽然越来越多的出海团队也在海外创建本土团队，但依然很少有中国公司能在海外玩转粉丝经济。出海企业也在不断摸索，Flash Keyboard近期在各国下载量不断攀升，本地化则是其最重要原则。在各种语言版本推出前，其团队会找多名测试者分别对输入方式、文化、互联网社交方面进行大量测试，以确保和当地产品一模一样。
除基础的语言问题外，海外法律和文化上也隐藏诸多雷区。2015年年底，Google Play曾严厉打击涉及侵权和作弊的游戏，因刷榜、抄袭等违规行为，仅在东南亚地区就有数百款游戏遭遇下架。再比如，海外用户注重个人隐私保护，当APP应用需要使用相机、麦克风、通讯录等敏感权限的时候，用户可能会非常谨慎。