The top seller went to court overseas and was sentenced

Legal disputes between giant companies are endless, including Temu and SHEIN, and now Dreame and Roborock...

Zhuimi sued Stone Technology

Recently, Yien.com noticed that two major overseas giants were in court overseas and the results of the lawsuit have been announced.

A ruling by the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany in mid-August showed that Chinese home appliance giant Dreame and Stone Technology had filed a patent infringement lawsuit overseas, and Stone Technology had lost the case.

In this lawsuit, Dreame Innovation Technology (Suzhou) Co. , Ltd. ( hereinafter referred to as "Dreame" ) sued Roborock Technology 's German subsidiary ( Roborock Germany GmbH, hereinafter referred to as " Roborock Technology " ).

Although Stone Technology did not attend the final trial, the Düsseldorf Regional Court still made a ruling, requiring Stone Technology to:

1. Stop the sale , use and import of the patented products involved in the case in Germany . If violated, a single administrative fine of up to 250,000 euros may be imposed ; if violated multiple times (within two years) , the legal person may be detained for up to 6 months each time .

2. Provide information on suppliers and customers of relevant products sold in Germany from April 18, 2024 , as well as sales volume , price and other information.

3. Provide production information of relevant products sold in Germany from April 18, 2024 , relevant certificates of suppliers and customers, such as invoices, commercial promotion, cost and profit, etc.

4. The inventory of the products involved in the case will be handed over to the bailiff for destruction, and the relevant expenses will be borne by the client .

5. Recall products that have been sold and bear the related packaging and transportation costs.

6. Compensate for all losses that have been and will be suffered since April 18 .

As a result of losing the case, Stone Technology also needs to bear the relevant costs of this lawsuit . In addition, the disputed amount of this lawsuit is 250,000 euros.

Judging from the specific case information, the two sweeping robots under Stone Technology infringed the patents of Dreame products in the field of "cleaning devices and cleaning equipment" . It can also be judged from the " April 18, 2024 " mentioned many times above that the starting date of the effective date of the patent in question may be April 18, 2024.

It can be foreseen that this judgment will inevitably have an impact on Stone Technology's German market.

But the two giants are not only fighting each other overseas .

On the eve of this year's domestic "618" promotion, Zhuimi applied to the Quanzhou Intermediate People's Court for an order for Stone Technology to immediately stop selling infringing products on the grounds of patent infringement. In early June, the court ruled that Stone Technology should stop manufacturing and selling related products.

Although Stone Technology later appealed to the Supreme People's Court and the ruling was revoked , it is understood that because the ban came into effect on the eve of the "618 Promotion", Stone Technology estimated that its sales volume lost more than 20,000 units .

According to Qichacha data, this year alone, Dreame has had nine lawsuits with Stone Technology, and the latter has been the defendant in all of them .

The two giants are tearing each other apart at home and abroad. Although the competition between the two in the market is in full swing and business wars are constantly going on to gain more market share, at the same time their business performance has also been good news.

The two giants are making a big splash overseas

According to the financial report released not long ago, in the first half of this year, Stone Technology's revenue hit a new high of 4.416 billion yuan, up 30.90% from the same period last year. Net profit made great progress, increasing to 1.121 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.57% .

Among them, the overseas market brought Stone Technology 2.294 billion yuan in revenue, accounting for about 52% of the total revenue , which has exceeded its domestic market. Compared with the whole year of last year, its overseas market revenue was 4.229 billion yuan, accounting for less than 49% of the total revenue.

But last year, Stone Technology's revenue and profits both soared, and it said at the time that this was due to the growth of overseas markets .

In terms of operating costs, in the first half of this year, the overseas market had lower costs, at 953 million yuan, while the domestic market had costs of 1.087 billion yuan. In other words, Stone Technology's overseas market has high revenue, low costs, and greater profit contribution. In 2023, Stone Technology's overseas market gross profit margin will be 61.7%, significantly exceeding the 49.3% of the domestic market .

Since its establishment in 2014 and listing in 2020, Stone Technology has now become a leading home appliance brand in the global market with its crazy growth in domestic and overseas markets.

According to Euromonitor data , Roborock Technology's robot vacuum cleaner sales are already the highest in the world , and its products are also ranked in the top three in market share in more than 14 countries and regions. In the United States, Roborock Technology's high-end products have a market share of 57%.

As of now, Stone Technology’s products cover more than 170 markets around the world, and it has also established overseas companies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, South Korea, Canada and other places.

In terms of sales channels, it not only has presence on third-party e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, and Bestbuy, but has also entered the large American supermarket Target.

The rapid growth in performance has driven the improvement of its stock price and market value. Since last year, Stone Technology's stock price has soared, surpassing the old giant Ecovacs at one point to become the industry's number one in market value .

The pursuit is no less intense.

Founded in 2017, Dreame set its sights on the global market from the very beginning. Its products now cover more than 100 international markets including the United States, Germany, and Japan.

In May this year , Dreame mentioned at its press conference that the global sales of its sweeping robot products exceeded 2.4 million units last year , a year-on-year increase of 300%, and won multiple market share firsts: Germany ranked first for 8 consecutive months, Italy ranked first in March, and Singapore ranked first in the first quarter .

With layouts at home and abroad, and "online + offline" dual wheels running in parallel, from 2019 to 2023, Dreame's revenue compound annual growth rate exceeded 100%. Last year, its overseas business grew by 120% year-on-year. Online, it has layouts on leading e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, and offline, it has more than 4,400 physical stores around the world.

This year, Zhuimi continued the success of previous Amazon PD promotions.

Its battle report shows that during the promotion period, Dreame's GMV on Amazon's Southwestern European site reached 180 million, a year-on-year increase of 80%. Among them, its two flagship sweeping robots took the second place in the category, and the sales of smart robots on Amazon's European site exceeded 20 million yuan; the GMV of the North American site reached 79.32 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 102%, and the omni-channel sales volume reached 14,000 units; the GMV in the Japanese market increased by 350% year-on-year ; the GMV in the Australian market increased by 435% year-on-year, and the number of orders increased by 962% year-on-year .

During the same period, the overall sales volume of its independent site increased by 760% year-on-year; its sweeping robots ranked first in sales volume and market share on eBay, and its products also became the top 1 in the platform category.

Although it was established after giants such as Ecovacs and Roborock, Dreame's market explosiveness should not be underestimated. According to a report by Kaiyuan Securities , based on data from Amazon Germany , from January to October 2023 , Dreame's sales growth rate reached 487% , far exceeding Ecovacs ' 141% and Roborock 's 111% .

In August this year , Dreame announced the establishment of the Zhuichuang Robot Industry Venture Capital Fund with a total target scale of 11 billion yuan, which shows its ambition.

GFK data shows that at present, Chinese sweeping robot brands account for more than half of the overseas market share. Because of this, more and more Chinese home appliance brands are flocking to overseas markets to seek more growth possibilities, but this also means that they will spread the battlefield from domestic to overseas, and the fierce battle is still going on...

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