Patent Landscape Analysis of November 26, 2018 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo Table of Contents Analysis of Oppo’s patent portfolio..................................................................................... 3 Fast Charging – Patent Landscape Analysis ......................................................................... 6 ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 2 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo Analysis of Oppo’s patent portfolio Oppo has a total of 25,607 IP assets globally of which about 20,000 are active. About one-third of these active assets are granted patents (6,533 patents). These IP assets (patents and applications) are predominantly active in China, followed by in the US and Europe. It has also been filing patents in Japan, Taiwan, Europe and Australia. In 2017, Oppo showed a significant interest in filing patents in other geographies. Its patent filing activity in patent offices beyond China has been increasing over the years. Oppo filed 51% of its U.S. patents portfolio in 2017. Also, 83% of Oppo’s patent portfolio in India and 44% patent of its patent portfolio in Europe was filed in 2017. This indicates Oppo’s aggressive move in global expansion. The below graph charts Oppo’s patent filing trend since 2006. Please note that the numbers for 2017 and 2018 are projected figures as the patent applications filed in those years might not be published yet. Filing Trend 10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Figure 1: Filing Trend of Oppo’s Patents/Patent Applications Oppo’s portfolio in China includes close to 95% (6,184) of granted active patents and 10,634 active patent applications. Oppo has also established a recognizable portfolio in the U.S. with 206 active grants and 437 active applications. ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 3 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo TOP 5 GEOGRAPHIES 16826 973 655 474 468 CHINA WIPO USA EPO INDIA Figure 2: Top five geographies of Oppo’s IP assets Oppo’s portfolio can be broadly categorized into the following seven technology heads: Category Description Communication This category includes patents/patent applications related to the methods and circuitry that manages the communication capability of the phone. Phone Circuitry This category includes patents/patent applications related to the circuitry such as speakers, GPS, memories, etc. Data Processing This category includes patents/patent applications related to image and data processing. Display This category includes patents/patent applications related to display systems. Camera This category includes patents/patent applications related to camera modules. Power Management This category includes patents/patent applications related to power management, which includes charging and battery related patents/patent applications. ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 4 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo Security This category includes patents/patent applications related to the hardware and methods related to Security of the device such as fingerprint, pattern lock, etc. Table 1: Categorization of Oppo’s IP Assets ~30% IP assets assigned to Oppo are related to the methods and circuitry that manages the communication capability of a device, taking up the largest share of Oppo’s patent portfolio. This is followed by patents related to Power Management (18%), Camera and Data Processing patents that make up for 13% each of Oppo’s IP portfolio. Patent Categorization Communication 18% Phone Circuitry 30% Data Processing 6% Display 13% Camera 8% Security 12% 13% Power Management Figure 3: Oppo’s patent categorization ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 5 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo Fast Charging – Patent Landscape Analysis While most smartphone manufacturers research their own technologies in terms of display screen, camera, etc., providing faster methods of charging has certainly drawn attention to Oppo. This was initially the core selling point for major traditional players such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei to name a few. The voltages or amperes used in quick or fast charging are higher when compared to those used in traditional charging methods, thereby increasing power that that can be delivered to the batteries. Qualcomm’s Quick charge, Motorola’s Turbo Power, MediaTek’s’ Pump Express and Samsung’s Adaptive Charging are a few popular proprietary charging standards in which voltage is increased. In contrast to other fast charging technologies which rely on voltage to increase power, Oppo’s VOOC technology increases amperes that a charger can pump into battery resulting in higher power delivery. This increased power takes less time to charge a battery from 10% to 90%. Moreover, the relative rise in temperature is less in case of increase in amperes when compared to that of voltage. Such unique features are likely to give Oppo’s VOOC an edge over other proprietary charging standards, including Qualcomm’s Quick Charge. Of 44,650 global fast charging (specific to implementation in smartphones) IP assets, Samsung tops the list with 1,072 IP assets followed by Oppo with 956 IP assets in this space. IP assets related to fast charging constitutes 5% of Oppo’s IP portfolio. LG Electronics, Qualcomm and Panasonic stand in the next three positions. The figure below gives an insight of the top 10 companies in the fast charging technology space of fast charging. ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 6 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo 1200 1072 1000 956 884 800 638 600 477 400 346 345 341 314 305 200 0 Figure 4: Top 10 assignees in fast charging IP Most of Samsung’s IP assets are filed in the US and South Korea. Oppo has filed most of its IP assets in China and the U.S. Qualcomm has almost an even distribution of its fast charging IP assets in China and the U.S. The geography-wise distribution of fast charging IP assets with respect to the top five companies is shown in the figure below: 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 China South Korea USA Japan Europe Oppo Panasonic Qualcomm Samsung LG Electronics ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 7 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo Figure 5: Geography-wise distribution of fast charging assets for Top 5 companies Figure 6 indicates the filing trend of the top five assignees in the fast charging technology (specific to implementation in smartphones). Samsung, Qualcomm and Panasonic have maintained a steady growth from 2006. LG Electronics started filing its assets from 2003 and the filing rate continued to increase till 2006. It then witnessed a spike after 2013. In contrast to all these companies, Oppo started its research on fast charging in the later years. There was a significant increase in patent filings by Oppo in the charging technology space in 2013. This can be attributed to Oppo releasing its VOOC technology in 2014 followed by the Super VOOC technology in 2016. 350 300 SuperVOOC 250 200 150 VOOC 100 50 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Samsung Oppo LG Electronics Qualcomm Panasonic Figure 6: Filing trend of the top 5 assignees from 1998-2018 [Note: The dotted (…….) sections of the graph are the projected values since most of the applications filed during that time might not have been published yet.] Since Oppo started its research in fast charging in the recent years, the number of granted patents in its IP portfolio is just 28%. The companies in the list of top five assignees, i.e. Samsung, Qualcomm, LG Electronics and Panasonic have more than 50% granted patents in their portfolio related to fast charging technology (specific to implementation in smartphones). The highest number of granted patents is in the U.S., followed by China and ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 8 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo South Korea. Figure 7 illustrates the geography-wise segmentation of granted patents of the top five companies in fast charging technology (specific to implementation in smartphones). 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 USA China South Korea Japan Europe Oppo Panasonic Qualcomm Samsung LG Electronics Figure 7: Geography-wise granted patents of Top-5 companies With most of its assets filed in recent years, Oppo’s fast charging IP has an average remaining life of 15.84 yrs. Fast charging patents of LG Electronics, Qualcomm and Samsung have an average remaining life of approximately 12 yrs. Oppo’s Market Presence Oppo is increasing its global footprint by opening up its licenses to several players. OnePlus, a subsidiary of Oppo has licensed the patents related to fast charging to develop a DASH charger for their mobiles. After claiming to have disrupted the wired charging market, Oppo plans to enter the wireless charging domain. Oppo’s recent patent discloses the use of fast charging in wireless charging systems. While devices employing the fastest wireless charging standards such as Qi 2.0 can charge phones up to 10 watts, Oppo aims to do the same in just the ‘standard’ mode. The company’s wireless charging system utilizes a microprocessor controlled two-way communication system between the charging circuitry within the smartphone and the wireless charging base station to enable a second charging mode that’s faster than the standard mode. In the fast wireless charging mode, Oppo may allow 15 watts of charging wattages. This may be even better than the company’s latest Find X Lamborghini edition phone which charges the battery from zero to full capacity in just 35 minutes1 using the Super VOOC technology. 1 https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/oppo-files-wireless-charging-patent/]-=\ ©2018, iRunway, Inc. Public Page 9 of 12 Patent Landscape Analysis of Oppo Further, the Oppo Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging (VOOC) Flash Charging system can charge devices from 0 to 75% in 30 minutes.