Only by putting in full effort in innovation and building a "moat" in technology can we better coordinate cooperation and competition and build our own competitive advantages in the domestic and foreign technology markets.

　　Not long ago, the author went to Jiangsu for an interview and found that the use of intellectual property rights by local innovation entities is becoming increasingly diversified. For example, some companies have strengthened patent cross-licensing around key technologies and products in key industrial chains, formed a "patent pool", created a patent sharing library, actively cultivated standard necessary patents, and built a mutually promoting patent network system.

　　Patent cross-licensing is a cooperation method that can help innovative entities cooperate with each other and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. In this way, the innovative entities conditionally allow each other to use their own patented technology during product research and development or product production, thereby protecting the interests of both parties to a certain extent. This method not only reduces the cost of patent use and promotes technical exchanges and application, but also effectively determines disputes and provides new ideas and new ways for related industries to eliminate technical barriers and resolve patent disputes.

　　Today, patent cross-licensing is favored by more and more companies. In January this year, OPPO signed a global patent cross-license agreement with Panasonic on the essential patents for cellular communication standards. The agreement covers a multi-field cooperation plan for intellectual property rights and will end pending litigation in all jurisdictions around the world. In recent years, Huawei, Xiaomi, Longi Green Energy and other companies have also actively promoted patent cross-licensing work.

　　Intellectual property is an important engine of technical cooperation. With the deepening of the application of science and technology, it is becoming increasingly difficult for R&D to completely avoid the technological achievements of others or predecessors, which has led to a technological intersection between the same industry and even different industries. The characteristic of "you have me, I have you" is becoming more and more obvious. This phenomenon is particularly common in some technology-intensive industries. The smartphones we commonly use involve thousands of patented technologies, and no company can completely "bypass" other people's technology and independently create a smartphone. In this case, replacing disputes with settlement and signing a patent cross-license agreement is a wise choice.

　　From a domestic perspective, promoting cross-licensing of patents will help comprehensively rectify "in-circuit" competition, and will solve the problems of disorder and "in-circuit" in industry competition, combine it with industrial quality improvement and upgrading, build a healthier industry competition ecology for enterprises and better promote the construction of a unified national market. From a global perspective, patent cross-licensing has become an important part of global intellectual property cooperation and game rules. In recent years, domestic companies have become more and more skilled in keeping with international peer rules. Many of the objects of patent cross-licensing are foreign manufacturers such as Samsung and Nokia. This is not only a reflection of domestic companies' respect for the value of intellectual property rights, but also shows that patent cross-licensing plays an increasingly important role in international technical exchanges.

　　The popularization of patent cross-licensing is closely related to my country's continuous accelerating pace of innovation and its increasing position in the global innovation ecosystem. In the past, there were few Chinese innovation entities on some PCT international patent application lists. Today, many enterprises and colleges and universities are among the forefront, becoming owners of high-value patents and contributors to mainstream industry standards. Countless examples have proved that innovation is the primary driving force for development, and protecting intellectual property rights is protecting innovation. Only by putting in efforts to innovate and establishing a "moat" in technology can we make good use of intellectual property tools better coordinate cooperation and competition and build our own competitive advantages in the domestic and foreign technology markets.

　　At present, my country is moving from a major intellectual property country to a strong intellectual property country, and patent cross-licensing is increasingly highlighting its application value. On the basis of accelerating independent innovation, we expect more innovative entities to respect market rules and engage in healthy competition, carry out technical exchanges and cooperation in the form of patent cross-licensing, solve the dilemma of "intra-circuit", build a healthy, orderly and vibrant innovation ecosystem, and transform more "paper patents" into "industrial dividends." (Gu Yekai)

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]