Gree Went after Xiaomi again for Patent Rights

In a recent financial interview program, Gree Electric Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu revealed that Gree had received a compensation of 500,000 yuan from Xiaomi for infringing Gree’s air conditioner patent.

 

This announcement immediately attracted extensive attention in the Chinese home appliance industry and even the entire field of science and technology. Dong Mingzhu not only emphasized Gree's firm stance on patent protection in the interview, but also proudly said, “I can say that Gree offers the best air conditioners in the world. We have more than 100,000 patents.” Her words not only highlighted Gree's technical confidence, but also once again disclosed the intense competition between Gree and Xiaomi.

 

In response to this news, on the morning of December 16, head of Xiaomi’s Public Relations Wang Hua posted on Weibo: “After re-verification, the information is not true. First, Xiaomi’s air conditioners made no patent infringement; second, we didn’t pay a patent infringement compensation of 500,000 yuan.”

 

In fact, the feud between Xiaomi and Gree has long existed. At Gree’s 2023 Annual Shareholders Meeting in June 2024, Dong Mingzhu openly questioned Xiaomi’s innovative power, “Gree is constantly fighting counterfeiting while Xiaomi is relying solely on OEM. Have you developed any technology of your own?”

 

In July, Gree said on Weibo that it had received the legal document issued by the Supreme People's Court on June 18, 2024. According to the judgement, Xiaomi’s Mijia electric fan BPTS01DM infringed Gree’s patent rights, therefore should no longer be manufactured or sold. In addition, the infringer should pay the plaintiff 1.85 million yuan as economic compensation.

 

After half a year, the tension between the two sides further escalated as Dong Mingzhu once again mentioned the patent infringement issue of Xiaomi's air conditioners. Lu Weibing, Partner and President of Xiaomi joined the fight shortly after Wang Hua. “We happened to have a regular meeting over the business of large electric appliances this morning. I paid special attention to the sales and market share of our air conditioners. According to third-party statistics, sales of Xiaomi’s air conditioners increased 53% year-on-year from January to November.” His post seemed to imply that the disturbance in recent days rooted in the rapid increase of Xiaomi, which has threatened the leading position of Gree in the air conditioner industry. After a few moment, Wang Hua retweeted, “We all know that Xiaomi’s large electrical appliances factory has broken ground, and next year we will be able to self-research and self-produce Xiaomi air conditioners.”