The hottest WSN technology is not yet mature, and

WSN technology is not yet mature, and the number of patents in China and the United States is similar

wireless sensor net work, referred to as WSN, is composed of a large number of cheap micro sensor nodes deployed in the monitoring area. It is a multi hop self-organizing network system formed by wireless communication. Its purpose is to sense The rapid development of electric vehicles in China, which collect and process the perceived objects in the network coverage area, has driven the rapid growth of lithium diaphragm industry, and sent information to observers

in fact, at present, the commercial application of WSN has also gradually risen. Steel window inspection rules GB 5827 (8) 6 according to a recent report released by market research company onworld, it is expected that by 2011, the world market for wireless sensor network (WSN) systems and services will soar to about $4.6 billion, an increase of $500million over the current market

this paper takes Chinese and American patents in the field of wireless sensor network technology as the object of analysis. The data are from the public information of the U.S. patent and Trademark Office and the State Intellectual Property Office, respectively. The data deadline is October 25, 2010. It mainly includes authorized U.S. patents, published U.S. patent applications and published or authorized Chinese patent applications within the collection period. The patent applications that have been accepted but not yet published are not included in the statistical analysis of this article

foreign technology development is in the ascendant

developed countries represented by the United States attach great importance to this field. Wireless sensor network technology has been listed as one of the important emerging technologies in the future by various American magazines. Famous universities such as Massachusetts Institute of technology also have research groups engaged in related technology research. The U.S. Department of Defense's vision research agency and some large IT companies have set up or launched corresponding research and development plans through cooperation with colleges and universities, and have made many important research achievements in the miniaturization of wireless sensor nodes, low-power design, network organization, data processing and management, and WSN network applications

search the claims of patent applications and the background and abstract of patent applications with inclusive WSN terms, and get the following results:

it can be seen from Figure 1 that the total number of patents of wireless sensor network technology in the United States is increasing year by year (the patent application database of the U.S. patent and trademark office only provides data from 2000 to now). In terms of the number of patent applications, it has maintained a high-speed growth from 2002 to 2007. The growth rate of patent applications has slowed down slightly since 2008, but it still maintains a steady growth every year, indicating that the technology activity in this field is very high and the replacement of innovative technologies is fast. It is expected that a large number of patents in this field will be authorized in the next few years

according to figure 2, the top three countries (regions) with U.S. patent applications are the United States, Japan and South Korea. It is obvious that the number of published patents owned by U.S. obligees/applicants far exceeds that of other countries, accounting for about 71%, which has an absolute advantage

among the top ten U.S. patent holders/applicants, there are 6 U.S. enterprises, which fully shows that the United States has certain advantages in the field of wireless sensor network technology. Among them, Motorola owns the most U.S. patents, and the company's application trend is also continuing to rise. Nokia followed closely in terms of authorized patents, with Samsung, Sony and Ericsson ranking fourth, sixth and seventh respectively. In terms of published patent applications, the top three are Samsung, Microsoft and Honeywell

in general, all developed countries attach great importance to the research and development of wireless sensor network technology. Specifically, the United States, which first opened the prelude to the development of modern WSN, is in the lead in core technologies such as communication protocols, hardware facilities and chip technology, while Japan and South Korea are in the forefront in application

China's R & D develops rapidly

China's modern WSN and its application research are almost synchronized with developed countries. In 2001, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the microsystem research and development center to promote the research of WSN. In 2006, WSN was listed in the national medium and long term science and technology development plan (2006 ~ 2020) as a major special project, priority development theme and frontier field, and has become one of the important directions of the new generation of broadband mobile wireless communication in major special projects

at present, the application of WSN in China has gone deep into the civil fields such as intelligent appliances, intelligent buildings, intelligent transportation, small and medium-sized enterprise management, etc. WSN was also demonstrated and applied at the 2010 Shanghai WorldExpo

wireless sensor network technology started not late in China, but it really started large-scale research and development from 2004 to 2006. After 2007, it showed an explosive growth trend. In some years, the number of patents published doubled, and the number of invention patents authorized increased by more than three times that of the previous year. The main reason may be that after 2004, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the outline of the national medium and long term science and technology development plan (), the National 863 key project, the national key basic research and development plan 973, and the national development and Reform Commission China next generation interconnection project (CNGI) have successively listed WSN technology as a key field and priority topic. With the launch of the new generation broadband mobile communication national major project of the Ministry of industry and information technology in 2008, the trend of patent applications has continued to rise

at present, China and the United States have the largest number of invention patent authorizations and total patents respectively. Japan and South Korea followed. In terms of proportion, the number of patents owned by China, Japan and South Korea is significantly ahead of other countries and regions

the obligees/applicants with the most WSN technology related patents in China are mainly foreign large enterprises. The top three companies are Samsung, Nokia and Royal Philips. Only Huawei, a domestic enterprise, has entered the top ten. However, Huawei ranks fourth in the number of invention patents authorized, and the gap between Huawei and foreign enterprises is not large. In addition, it should be noted that the top ten enterprises apply for invention patents

compared with the above ranking of U.S. patentees/applicants, it can be found that companies leading in the field of WSN technology have a large number of applications in both China and the United States. Motorola, which has the most U.S. patents, also ranks 11th in China, which shows the fierce technological competition in this field

actively participate in international competition

through the comparative analysis of Chinese and American patents in the field of wireless sensor network technology, we can draw the following conclusions:

(I) WSN technology has not yet entered the mature stage, and the absolute number of American patents and Chinese patents is not much different. After searching the patent databases of China and the United States, it is known that the number of patents in the field of wireless sensor network technology in the United States is more than that in China. Among them, the number of authorized patents in the United States is 2250, and the total number of open patent applications is 5974. The total number of Chinese patent applications that have been published in this field is 1963, including 1928 invention patents and 35 utility models. The number of invention patents that have been authorized is 343. However, it should be noted that according to the distribution of the countries and regions to which the above-mentioned patents belong, only about 30% of the Chinese patents of WSN technology come from domestic applicants/obligees

according to the annual distribution of the number of patents, although the United States entered the peak of patent applications earlier, the gap between the number of patents between China and the United States is not obvious. It shows that both at home and abroad pay high attention to this field, and technology research and development are gradually active

(II) WSN technology has a high concentration of patents in the United States, and there is a lack of enterprises, colleges and universities or scientific research institutions with strong R & D capabilities in China. Large companies in the United States, Japan and South Korea have basically formed the patent layout of the United States and China in this field, and domestic companies other than Huawei cannot occupy a place. From the ranking statistics of patentees/applicants, it can be seen that the top patentees/applicants in the United States have a large number of patent applications in China, while domestic enterprises have few patent applications in the United States, and the authorized patents are almost negligible. The difference between the two is obvious. Therefore, domestic enterprises should first focus on increasing domestic patent applications, and then pay attention to the layout of patented technology overseas to avoid being controlled by others

(III) China's WSN industry should seize the opportunity to actively participate in international competition by means of intellectual property rights and standardization. Through analysis and background data, it can be seen that WSN technology has a better development space than other core basic industries, such as semiconductors, mobile communications, electronic components, etc., and Chinese enterprises still have the opportunity to avoid the problems that have plagued China's information industry for a long time, such as the relative core patents they master. 4. Technical indicators: insufficient, unable to participate in standardization formulation, and thus controlled by others. On the one hand, domestic enterprises should take this opportunity to fully study the patents applied by the target company in China, speed up the research and development progress, and apply for basic patents at home and abroad at the same time; On the other hand, taking advantage of the opportunities of the WSN working group established in China to participate in the WSN Standardization Working Group jointly organized by the international organization for standardization iso/iec, we will gradually incorporate basic patents into international standards and seize the commanding heights of the future WSN industry