(1) Case Overview
In 2016, Han Dongcheng and Fan Chao, who were still postgraduate students at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), founded Anhui Easpeed Co., Ltd., which is dedicated to providing “interactive holographic air imaging solutions”.
In 2017, with the guidance of their technical team and relevant faculty members from USTC, Easpeed applied for several patents, including the one subjected to the current invalidation declaration.
From February to March 2019, Easpeed successively received notices of acceptance of requests for invalidation declarations regarding patents such as “Optical Flat Plate Structure For Realizing Air Imaging” and “Single-Row Multi-Column Equivalent Negative-Refractive-Index Flat Lens”.
On May 7, 2019, the Reexamination and Invalidation Department of the Patent Office of China National Intellectual Property Administration publicly heard the invalidation request for the patents titled “Optical Flat Plate Structure For Realizing Air Imaging” and “Single-Row Multi-Column Equivalent Negative-Refractive-Index Flat Lens”.
On July 3, 2019, with the declaration that the patent “Optical Flat Plate Structure For Realizing Air Imaging” was maintained valid, this round of the patent judgment concluded. Both patents titled “Optical Flat Plate Structure For Realizing Air Imaging” and “Single-Row Multi-Column Equivalent Negative-Refractive-Index Flat Lens” were maintained as valid patents.
(2) Easpeed’s Journey in Air Imaging
Based on available information, the core team members of Easpeed are all from USTC. The company relies on the scientific research resources and manufacturing platforms of the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the optical lens processing factory of the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The company’s core technology is the DCT-plate equivalent negative-refractive-index flat lens, which uses the principle of light-field reconstruction to re-converge divergent light into a real image in the air. Combined with a somatosensory interaction device, it enables direct interaction between humans and the real image. The image presentation angle can be set according to the specific scenario without requiring any medium. The product manufacturing process covers optical design, optical processing, chemical engineering, mechanical design, assembly manufacturing, electronic circuits, software development, etc.
In 2015, Han Dongcheng and Fan Chao, the founders who were postgraduate students at USTC at that time, got acquainted with each other and founded Anhui Easpeed Co., Ltd. in the following year. After technological research and development and process optimization, in 2019, Anhui Easpeed Co., Ltd. was actively implementing a mass production plan for this technology in Hefei, Anhui Province. The factory has invested over 10 million yuan and is currently setting up its first production line. It is expected to achieve mass production in the second half of 2019. The company aims to provide complete and disruptive solutions in important industries such as military display, comprehensive education, automobiles, outdoor media, information security, and exhibition.
Based on its advanced technology and process level, and being the only company in China to achieve holographic medium-free imaging using the DCT-Plate technology, the industry currently believes that Easpeed ranks second globally in the field of holographic air imaging, second only to the Japanese competitive product ASKA3D. In the future, after mass production and market iteration, the company is expected to enter the international market in all respects.
(3) Why Was the Invalidation Request Filed Before Mass Production?
In the process of humans obtaining information through their senses, vision accounts for 60%. The pursuit of visual experience by humans has never ceased. Therefore, the display industry has always been a highly competitive field with rapid technological updates. Data shows that in 2016, the overall scale of China’s display industry reached 300 billion yuan, and the global output value of the display industry hit 805 billion yuan. In 2017, there were four 11th-generation panel production lines under construction in China, and several 8.5th-generation lines entered the mass-production stage. It was estimated that the annual sales revenue would exceed 220 billion yuan, the shipment area of display panels would exceed 60 million square meters, accounting for over 40% of the global market, and China’s panel production capacity would rank first in the world. China is becoming the most active country in global production-line construction, providing the major market for global new-type display devices and raw materials. It is estimated that by 2020, the global output value of the display industry will reach 140 billion US dollars. With the rise of smart hardware fields such as wearable devices, smart cars, and commercial displays, the market has put forward new requirements for display technologies, indicating a huge development potential for the display industry in the future.
Holographic technology is the most advanced form of light display. In recent years, industry giants such as Baidu and Alibaba have released air-imaging concept products with interactive functions. For example, Baidu released “Genie Lamp Search——the world’s first AI-powered search product”, and Alipay released “Alipay Air——the latest smart IoT service solution”, which represent the future development direction to some extent. The DCT-Plate technology of Easpeed can achieve true holographic imaging, presenting images directly in the air and enabling direct interaction with the images through various auxiliary tools without requiring any carrier medium. The images formed by the lens are real images, which differ from the virtual images presented by any current “holographic” technologies.
Currently, there are few enterprises globally that produce air-imaging technology products. Among them, the Japanese company Asukanet Co., Ltd.’s ASKA3D product holds a monopoly position, with most of the products sold in China being its agency products or those with minor modifications. The selling price is as high as hundreds of thousands of yuan per square meter. However, the DCT-Plate lens of Easpeed reaches a higher level of holographic imaging technology, addressing the four major pain points in the industry, including “screen dependence, illusory virtual images, lack of penetrability, and lack of interactivity”. Meanwhile, with the breaking of the monopoly, due to the low-cost and stability of raw materials in the industry, the price can be reduced to around 100,000 yuan after mass production. Therefore, driven by the huge profits in the industry, the core patents of Easpeed faced invalidation requests even before mass production.
After this battle, Easpeed has placed even greater emphasis on all aspects of the creation every aspect of the creation, management, utilization, and protection of intellectual property rights. It has also enabled the company to face potential future patent wars with greater maturity. Mr. Han Dongcheng, the chairman of Anhui Easpeed Co., Ltd., said confidently, “Patents precede markets. Through this patent invalidation experience at the beginning of the company’s establishment, we have come to realize the great commercial and legal value of intangible intellectual property assets during the enterprise operation. In subsequent operations, a more comprehensive patent portfolio will be formed, and the patent layout in the international market will be carried out in due course to build a strict patent protection network, providing strategic support for winning in the commercial market and combating malicious imitation or plagiarism by competitors.”
Our team gave full play to teamwork ability in this invalidation process and successfully maintained the core technology of Easpeed.
