CHINA'S LIGHTING INDUSTRY - The Sourcing Blog

Last time, we’ve discussed about the IP protection in China. Today, we’ll discuss about the more specific issue regarding this IP protection. When China committed to restrict its IP protection, the government also paid more attention to several critical issues and one of them is related to the lighting industry.

Growth in Lighting Industry

Recently, there has been an extravagant growth in the lighting industry as improvements in the China’s intellectual property environment give a boost to domestic innovations and entrepreneurship. As interaction with foreign business is increasing, the demand for more restricted IP protection in this industry is also increasing.

Guzhen City

Guzhen City is known as the “Lighting Capital”. The city is a one-stop institution with a mini-court offering legal services for local companies, part of efforts in the industry’s IP protection drive. Companies in Guzhen are selling more than 70% of lighting products in the domestic market. They have been extending their global scope of high quality and unique designs.

One company in Guzhen, which owns more than 400 lighting patents, has gained a strong foothold in overseas markets. Europe, the United States, and Russia contribute up to 70% of its total sales on average annually.

Mounting machine for LED manufacture

Integrating Sphere

A lot of lighting companies do agree and admit that Chinese lighting products have been increasingly accepted worldwide. But, on the other hand, the demand for a more streamlined patent market in order to push forward is also increasing. We talk from a very realistic point of view. To fill lawsuits and try to win them are too costly and time-consuming, moreover, the success of case can’t be guaranteed. So, this leads the issue of securing the market share by investing more in R&D and fighting the counterfeiters with more new products.

If they don’t increase the IP protection, both leaders and followers in the industry will surely enter the dark phase. Moreover, counterfeiting hurts China’s reputation!