Patented vacuum cleaner technology

 

Vacuum cleaners began to be distributed in Korea in the late 1980s. Although vacuum cleaners are needed for each house, they do not require high technology, so once they are purchased, they are unlikely to be replaced. For this reason, old vacuum cleaners could be seen in every house, and there was not much difference between the old vacuum cleaners and the modern ones. Then, in 2014, when the British company Dyson entered Korea, the vacuum cleaner market began to change significantly. Dyson shocked the industry worldwide by creating a new market for bagless cordless vacuums. Since then, a new field of cordless vacuum cleaners has emerged, and the growth rate is growing at a rate of 3-40% every year.

 

Dyson created the wireless vacuum cleaner market,

Dyson is regarded as one of the companies that has had a major impact on the home appliances trend of the 21st century. Only the appearance of a wireless vacuum cleaner without a dust bag, a fan without a blade, and a hair dryer without a sound is causing a big change in the industry. It started with a cordless vacuum cleaner. Dyson's founder, James Dyson, disassembled a poor vacuum and found that the bag's suction power decreased with use. Afterwards, a cyclone method was applied to the vacuum cleaner to separate dust and air without a dust bag. After more than 5,000 prototypes, he invented the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner. After that, Dyson's cordless vacuum cleaner achieved the No. 1 spot in UK vacuum cleaner sales 18 months after its launch, and began to change the world market.

▲ wipsglobal.com
EP 1039828 B1, Dyson's cordless vacuum cleaner patent filed in 1997.
Which titled "A Handle for a vacuum cleaner"

LG regains No. 1 market share in Korea,

Since Dyson entered Korea, the proportion of sales of cordless vacuum cleaners has risen sharply, exceeding that of wired vacuum cleaners in 2016. The domestic vacuum cleaner industry, which has rapidly lost market share, hastily started developing cordless vacuum cleaners. But it took a long time to catch up with Dyson. It wasn't until 2018 that a competing product could be launched, but Dyson was already holding the market. However, LG did not stop there and succeeded in taking another leap forward by creating products tailored to Korean consumers. Korean customers with Ondol (Korean floor heating system) culture had a need for mop cleaning, and LG launched a cordless vacuum cleaner with a wet mop function without missing out on this point. After the product was launched, LG quickly increased its market share and achieved the No. 1 market share in the wireless vacuum cleaner market in about six months.

▲ wipsglobal.com
KR 10-1634905 B, LG's patent for vacuum cleaner and water cleaning device, 
titled "Cleaner and water cleaning device"

⏫ drawing of water storage part

 

Samsung chasing with the docking station,

Samsung has developed vacuum cleaners in a different direction from LG. Usually, when you empty the dust bin of a cordless vacuum cleaner, you have to throw it out by hand. At this time, there was a lot of inconvenience because dust was spread out in the air. Samsung came up with a docking station to empty the dust bin to make it cleaner. Since the launch of the docking station, Samsung's wireless vacuum cleaner sales have doubled. However, the high price of the docking station and the need for a dedicated dust bag are pointed out as a disadvantage that the maintenance cost is continuously incurred.

▲ wipsglobal.com
KR10-2020-0074055 A, Samsung's patent,
"Cleaning device having vacuum cleaner and docking station"

⏫ drawing of docking station

 What's next for a cordless vacuum cleaner?

The vacuum cleaner market has changed rapidly with the advent of cordless vacuum cleaners. However, as time passed, the scope of change diminished, and people's eyes began to turn elsewhere. Robot vacuum cleaners are currently attracting the most attention. There have been robot vacuum cleaners in the past, but they did not receive much attention because their performance was not satisfying due to lack of technology. However, the market is rapidly growing as the functions of robot cleaners are supplemented with the development of artificial intelligence and battery technology. In Korea, the robot cleaner market is also growing rapidly. Although Everybot is a new company established in 2015, it achieved the No. 1 market share in domestic robot cleaners. They have filed 46 patents on vacuum cleaners and is evaluated as being technologically robust.

▲ wipsglobal.com
Robot vacuum cleaner patents filed by Everybot

With the advent of Dyson, a new market called cordless vacuum cleaners appeared in the market. What will be the new vacuum cleaners for the next market?

Cushion blocks for children

 

Introducing cushion blocks that can create a variety of playing spaces for children.

 

FORT

Magnetic Pillow Fort

There is a cushion block that can create a variety of playing spaces with 12 cushions in 5 different shapes. Ordinary blocks are inconvenient to use because they collapse quickly just by stacking them. The magic Fort includes a magnet in the cushion to provide firm support.

▲kickstarter.com,
getthefort.com

Not only fortresses, but also spaceships, sofas, chairs, etc. can be made in various ways. Because the cushions are not heavy, children aged 3-6 can play with them on their own.

▲kickstarter.com

When not in use, it can be easily stacked and stored, and it is waterproof, so it’s easily wiped off with water and soap if there is a foreign substance on it, so it is convenient to manage.

▲kickstarter.com

In COVID-19 that children can’t play outdoor, we can make an indoor playground for children!

 

Development of under-display cameras by smartphone manufacturers

 

World smartphone manufacturers are actively developing under-display camera technology. Under-display camera is a technology that hides the camera on the internal screen by applying a transparent display to the camera part. Let's look at patents related to under-display cameras of Google, Xiaomi, and Samsung Electronics.

 

Under-display camera using Google's Prism

In September of last year, Google filed a patent related to the under-display camera (UDC) technology in a way that alternately uses a camera and a display through Prism. Google's patent implemented a technology that reflects the light entering the prism toward the camera when the camera is used to take a picture, and when the camera is not in use, the prism is inverted to reflect the screen embodied by the sub-display to the user's eyes. Google is preparing to launch on a foldable full-screen smartphone that does not have a hole in the screen using this technology.

wipsglobal.com
US patent 16/671896, Google
"Full screen display with sub-display camera" 

Xiaomi's rotating pop-up camera

Xiaomi also filed a design patent for a smartphone equipped with a 'rotating pop-up camera' in 2019 to the Chinese Intellectual Property Office. This patent is a method in which the camera rotates 360 degrees front and rear inside the smartphone display, and the front lens rotates back and forth to even play the part of the rear lens. In addition to the rotating camera, two more cameras are mounted on the rear, which rotate using a magnetic or electric module and a central processing unit. In the figure below, the rotating camera is driven by no. 105 and the camera is reversed by no. 104. Xiaomi said that there is no need to install a separate front camera when implementing a rotating under-display camera, so it makes reduce the number of cameras and minimize contacting with dirt.

wipsglobal.com
CN patent 112714237 A, Xiaomi
"Terminal device, lens adjusting method and readable storage medium"

Samsung Electronics' sub-display camera

Samsung Electronics applied for a patent to hide the front camera using the sub-display in June of last year. This patent describes in the figure below, when a selfie camera is used, a method in which the selfie camera is displayed while the sub-display of 430 moves downwards by the driver of 440. The mobile sub-display also shows notification icons, time, and battery level.

wipsglobal.com
US patent 16/906053, Samsung Electronics
"Electronic device including sub display and method of operating same"

The reason why smartphone makers apply under-display cameras is to make the screen larger by securing a larger visible space on the front of the smartphone. Through the development of these various technologies by manufacturers, we expect that products that will satisfy consumers who want full screen will come out.

Samsung was sued for a patent sold by LG

 

LG Electronics' mobile business ended

LG Electronics started the mobile business in 1995 under the name of LG Information and Communication. Starting with the success of the CYON (one of mobile brands) they continued to advance with chocolate phone, Prada phone, Lollipop, etc. and it once reached to the third place in the global mobile phone market. However, in the process of moving to the smartphone era, sales began to decline as they were unable to adapt. Since the first deficit in the second quarter of 2015, the deficit continued until last year, and the deficit amount was accumulated over 5 trillion won. Eventually, in April 2021, LG Electronics announced the withdrawal of the mobile business, and LG smartphones disappeared into history.

lge.co.kr
Notice of business termination

 Wireless division to be dismantled, what is the patent?

Upon the news of LG Electronics' mobile withdrawal, related industries and patent companies began to pay attention to the patents owned by LG. Although the company withdrew due to deteriorating profitability, the technological power is world-class for the last 26 years. According to a survey by IPlytics, a German patent research institute, LG Electronics ranked third in the world with 3,700 global 5G standard patents. Communication standard essential patents are more important because just a few companies such as Qualcomm, Samsung, and Nokia have dominated the market. The industry is analyzing that the value of LG Electronics' 5G standard patent will reach US$1-2 billion.

Current status of LG Electronics' wireless communication patent applications by year

Samsung attacked by LG patent

On April 30, Scramoge Technology, an Irish company, filed a lawsuit in the Texas Western District Court, claiming that Samsung Electronics infringed on a patent related to wireless charging. The reason why this patent infringement lawsuit is particularly noticeable is that the original owner of the patent was LG Innotek. In February, LG Innotek sold a total of 123 patents, including 95 patents registered with the US Patent Office and 28 pending patents, to Scramoge. Among the patents purchased at that time, three patents related to wireless charging (US9553476, US9825482, US9997962) were the ones that Samsung Electronics claimed to have infringed. LG Innotek said that they’ve already been pursuing the sale of patents after the wireless charging business was discontinued in 2019, and that it has nothing to do with LG Electronics' withdrawal of the mobile business. However, as a patent registered by a domestic company having a lawsuit against other domestic companies, the industry is showing concern.

wipsglobal.com
LG Innotek's patents sold to Scramoge

What is LG Electronics' decision?

In this first quarter earnings announcement, LG Electronics said that they have no plans to sell wireless communication-related patents, and that R&D on core mobile technologies will continue apart from the end of the business. This is because wireless communication technology is highly utilized internally, including not only mobile but also smart home appliances and IoT-based new product development. However, experts predict that unused patents could be sold because more than US$18 million cost a year only to maintain wireless communication patents. We have to watch how LG Electronics will use those patents.