Innovation Frontline

Wireless Patent Acquisition Feasibility Analysis

2012-01-29T08:32:00.003-05:00

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides acquisition feasibility analysis service for wireless patents.

Methodology

1. Acquisition subject matter selection and patent landscaping

Review the current market demand (including patent lawsuits) for selecting acquisition subject matter.

*Possible subject matter could be selected from LTE (including LTE-Advanced), WiFi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ad/af), WRAN (IEEE 802.22), Zigbee (IEEE 802.15), and NFC/RFID.
Review the current issued patent and applications pending in USPTO.

Categorize the identified patents through the review process.

Track the current assignees in the USPTO assignment database.

2. Candidate selection and patent marketability evaluation:

Based on assignee’s business situation, select the possible acquisition candidate.

Investigate the marketability of the candidate:

market valuation

business integration and/or compatibility

potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patent Valuation

2012-01-28T06:15:00.007-05:00

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides valuation service for LTE patent portfolios.

Methodology

1. Auditing for the complete set of LTE patent portfolios.

To find the key LTE patent portfolios, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

2. Evaluation of the LTE patent portfolio

Portfolio quality evaluation:
Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology in the standard specifications Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem and LTE radio protocol.

Essentiality analysis:
To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

3. Calculation of base values.

Calculate a base value of a LTE patent using the recent Nortel's and Motorola's patent deals.

4. Strengths/weaknesses of a particular IPR holder's LTE patent portfolio.

Compare the evaluated patent portfolio with the patent portfolio of Nortel (Motorola).

* Interesting LTE IPR holders: InterDigital, RIM, Nokia, TI, Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, Ericsson, ZTE

5. Valuation of the LTE patent portfolio.

Calculate the value of a particular IPR holder's LTE patent portfolio using the the base value utilizing the portfolio's quality factors.

*In recent Jefferies & Co's valuation (http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2011/09/21/identifying-the-tech-leaders-in-lte-wireless-patents/), only the essentiality factor (TechIPm provided) was considered.

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com.

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE-Advanced Patents Landscape 4Q 2011

2011-11-15T13:50:00.003-05:00

3GPP’s LTE-Advanced is one of candidates for ITU-R's (International Telecommunication Union – Radio Communication) 4G mobile communication (IMT-Advanced) standards. The LTE-Advanced standards establishment is scheduled to be in late 2011 as Ts36 Rel. 10 specifications. Recently AT&T announced that it will deploy LTE-Advanced network in 2013.

To find the key IPR holders for LTE-Advanced patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. More than 500 published patent applications and issued patents classified by key technologies (CA, SU/MU-MIMO, Relay, Femtocell, MBMS, CoMP, SON, and HetNet) are identified as of Oct. 31, 2011.

The top 10 IPR holders are Qualcomm, RIM, InterDigital, LG, Samsung, AT&T, Innovative Sonic, HTC, Motorola, and Ericsson. If we compare the analysis to the case of 3.9G LTE patents landscape, there are new key players that were not in 3.9G LTE: Innovative Sonic and HTC. Especially, Innovative Sonic is a Taiwanese NPE that sued RIM in 2010 for 3G mobile technology.

For details about the product, "LTE-Advanced Patents Data for Key Technologies", please contact Alex Lee (alexglee@techipm.com).

©2011 TechIPm, LLC
All Rights Reserved

802.11ac Gigabit WiFi Patents Landscape 4Q 2011

2011-11-06T07:22:00.002-05:00

IEEE 802.11ac is a standard of 802.11 WLAN families currently under development utilizing 5 GHz band for data throughput of at least 1 G bps. Standard finalization is expected in late 2012. According to research by In-Stat, nearly 350 million 802.11ac enable devices (routers, client devices, modems etc.) will ship annually by 2015.

To find the key IPR holders for 802.11ac patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. Total of 97 published patent applications are identified as of Oct. 31, 2011. The top 10 IPR holders are Qualcomm, Marvell Semiconductor, Broadcom, ETRI, Ralink Technology, Infineon, LG, Samsung, Cisco, and Intel.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Mobile Cloud Computing Patents Landscape 4Q 2011

2011-11-04T11:15:00.004-04:00

According to the research from Juniper Research, cloud-based mobile market will grow from $400 million in 2009 to $9.5 billion in 2014, at an average annual increase of 88%. (http://www.juniperresearch.com/reports.php?id=324).

To find the key IPR holders for mobile cloud computing patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. Total of 332 patents (24 issued patents) are identified as of Oct. 31, 2011. The Key IPR holders are Microsoft, IBM, Novell, Accenture, Computer Associates Think, SAP, Honeywell, Samsung, Avaya, NEC, Vmware, and Google.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

NFC Patents for Standards & Applications 4Q 2011

2011-11-02T07:40:00.004-04:00

NFC (Near field communication) is a short-range wireless technology that allows wireless connections between two devices for data exchange in various business transactions. NFC-enabled smartphones are expected to be one of major driver for mobile communications market.

To find the key IPR holders for NFC patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. Total of 729 patents (588 published patent applications) are identified as of Oct. 31, 2011. The Key IPR holders are American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Broadcom, First Data, Innovision Research & Technology, IBM, Inside Contactless, LG, MasterCard, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sony (including Sony Ericsson), NTT DoCoMo, NXP, Oberthur Technologies, Qualcomm, Renesas Technology, RIM, Samsung, Sprint, and STMicroelectronics.

The identified NFC patents are classified by industry standard for NFC technology (under development by the NFC Forum) and major NFC applications. The NFC Forum standard specifications included in the analysis are Activity, Digital, Protocol, LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), NDEF (Data Exchange Format), RF/Analog, RTD (Record Type Definition), and Tag Operation. The major NFC applications included in the analysis are NFC device and system (e.g. security), mobile payments, mobile business applications, entertainment, and social networking applications.

RF/Analog is identified as the top specification, and mobile payments are identified as the top NFC application.

For details about the product, "NFC Patents Data for Standards and Applications", please contact Alex Lee (alexglee@techipm.com).

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Intel's InterDigital Patent Acquisition Strategy

2011-09-12T09:01:00.006-04:00

Recently, Intel expressed its interest in acquisition of InterDigital's patents: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/211468/20110909/intel-chips-interdigital-patent-wireless-bidder.htm. The acquisition of InterDigital's patents will be a very good strategic option for Intel considering its current business portfolios.

To evaluate Intel's patent portfolio (issued patents and published applications), a keyword search of the USPTO data base was performed. As of Sep. 10 2010, there were total of 21,904 patents. Among 21,904 patents, the number of patents that are related to wireless communication technologies are 1,499. Among 1,499 patent, 341 patents are identified for claiming mobile phone related technology. The technologies for wireless patent portfolio cover WiFi, Zigbee, WiMAX, WRAN, BWA, RFID (NFC), and Bluetooth.

InterDigital's strongly mobile technology related patents, combined with Intel's strongly fixed wireless technology related patents will help Intel's business in emerging smartphone markets:
Fixed-mobile convergence (e.g. embedded WiFi + LTE chipsets), Mobile processors for smartphone, etc.

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition. For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Kodak Patens for Smartphone

2011-09-11T14:38:00.003-04:00

According to Bloomberg report, prospective buyers had been asked to sign NDAs to review Kodak's patent portfolio: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-30/kodak-says-large-number-of-buyers-evaluating-its-patents-1-.html

To evaluate Kodak's patent portfolio (issued patents and published applications), a keyword search of the USPTO data base was performed. As of Sep. 10 2010, there were total of 21,000 patents.

Among 21,000 patents, the number of patents that are related to image processing technologies are 2657. Among 2,657 patent, 762 patents are identified for claiming smartphone related technology.

LTE Mobile TV Patent Landscape

2011-09-10T15:47:00.002-04:00

eMBMS (evolved multimedia broadcast and multicast service) is a technology for broadcasting TV contents using LTE mobile networks. 20 mobile TV channels at 256 kbps can be supported in 5 MHz LTE channel. Section 15 of 3GPP TS 36.300 specifies the standard for eMBMS.

To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, and WPO) has been performed. As of Sep. 10 2010, 74 patents are identified for claiming eMBMS technology.

RIM is the leader, and other key IPR holders are as follows:
Alcatel Lucent, ETRI, InterDigital, LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Sharp.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Research In Motion's LTE Patents Can Help Apple Against Google

2011-09-10T09:19:00.002-04:00

To evaluate Research in Motion's LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included. Total of 43 patents are identified for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) products.

RIM's LTE patent portfolio is distributed among most of the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem and many of the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE radio protocol software.

Base on the recent TechIPm's comparative analysis of Motorola’s and Nortel's LTE patent portfolio, it is expected that RIM's LTE patent portfolio can make up the relative weakness in Nortel's LTE patent portfolio over Motorola's LTE patent portfolio and may be a good defense tool for Apple against Google.

1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?

2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?

3. Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. InterDigital v. Motorola).

4. Who is the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the business integration and/or compatibility? (e.g. RIM + Nortel)

5.What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Devices, Patent War, and Patent Pool

2011-09-04T05:43:00.003-04:00

According to GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) there were 45 manufacturers for 161 LTE-enabled user devices as of July 2011: http://www.gsacom.com/news/gsa_336.php4.
LTE user devices are Modules, Tablets, Notebooks/netbooks, PC Cards, Smartphones, Routers, and USB dongles.

Among 45 manufacturers, only 9 manufacturers - Ericsson, Huawei, LG, Motorola, NEC, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, and ZTE - were LTE essential patents shareholders based on TechIPm's LTE patent analysis:

To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included. More than 1,400 LTE related patents, issued and published applications in the US as of Aug. 31, 2011, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications. Total of 184 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential patent. The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent candidates are Ericsson, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, NSN, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, TI, and ZTE.

How about other 36 manufacturers? Are they free from patent lawsuit?

Recently, NGMN Board recommended that all stakeholders should participate in an effective LTE patent pool formation to avoid further delays in LTE licensing: http://www.lteportal.com/MediaChannel/Articles/LTE__LTE-Advanced;6/Regulation,_Standards,_Spectrum;31/NGMN_Board_Recommendation_on_LTE_Patent_Pool;2621?1&PHPSESSID=5fa3ddd96ac550ca5ac597f0a6b21909.

Who will be key players for the LTE patent pool?, Are there enough essential patents for the pool?

For details, please refer LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data:

LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data is the TechIPm's product based on LTE patents research for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data provides assignee, patent number, related 3GPP TS36 specifications, and the key technology components for an implementation of the products.
For details about the product, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Samsung's Mistake for InterDigital's Patents Acquisition

2011-09-03T11:47:00.007-04:00

According to a S. Korea's news media, Seoul Economic Daily, Samsung finally decided that it will not participate in auction for InterDigital's patents: http://economy.hankooki.com/lpage/industry/201108/e20110819164352120250.htm.

After Apple's acquisition of Nortel's patents, Samsung had expressed that it is interested in bidding for InterDigital's patents:http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-may-bid-on-interdigital-patent-portfolio-according-to-source-03169241/.

Samsung told to the media that there will be more lost then benefit for buying the patents because of price bubble in InterDigital's patents. It may be true if Samsung do not consider its strong competitor- Apple.

According to TechIPm's analysis for LTE patents, some part of InterDigita's LTE patent portfolio have a relative competitiveness over Samsung's, and it may be a good tool to Apple to attack Samsung, if it acquires InterDigital's patents.

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition. LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.

1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?
2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?
3. Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. InterDigital v. Samsung).
4. Who is the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the business integration and/or compatibility?
5.What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Mosaid's Nokia Patents May Be Risks to Google and Apple

2011-09-02T08:38:00.004-04:00

Ottawa-based patent licensing company Mosaid (a famous NPE) announced an acquisition of Nokia's patents including LTE patents: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/01/mosaid-acquires-2000-nokia-patents-will-handle-licensing-litigation-for-a-cut/

Based on the recent TechIPm's comparative analysis for LTE patent portfolios among Nokia, Motorola, Nortel, and InterDigital, it is expected that Mosaid's aggressive administration of Nokia's LTE patents can be potential risks for Google's and Apple's smartphone business.

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition. LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.

1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?

Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology in the standard specifications Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modulation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI), Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, and HARQ. Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE radio protocol: Random Access, HARQ, Channel Prioritization, Scheduling (Dynamic, SPS), Protocol Format (PDUs, SDUs), Radio Link Control (ARQ), PDCP Process (SRB, DRB, ROHC), Security (Ciphering, Integrity), System Information, Connection Control, and Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).

Evaluate the level of essentiality Essentiality Index (EI): E1 : Patent disclosure is weakly related to LTE technical specifications E2 : Patent disclosure is partially related to LTE technical specifications E3 : Patent disclosure is related to LTE technical specifications overall E4.

2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?

Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. Nokia v. Motorola) by technology. Answer for what critical holes in patent landscape are there to be filled & who has patent portfolio to fill those holes.

3. Who is the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the business integration and/or compatibility?

4. What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Motorola Patents Can Help Google But not Enough

2011-09-01T09:26:00.003-04:00

Recently, some IP experts commented about the Google's acquisition of Motorola's patents:

Motorola Patents May Not Help Google:
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/11234329/1/motorola-patents-may-not-help-google-opinion.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Motorola patents may shield Google from suits:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-08-23/business/29917281_1_motorola-mobility-motorola-patents-apple-patents

Some said Motorola's patents may help and some said may not. Who made a wrong opinion?
My answer is both are correct because the opinion can be completely opposite depending on methods used in the evaluation and many other factors.

Base on the recent TechIPm's analysis of Motorola's LTE patent portfolio, Motorola's patents may help Google. Considering the comparative analysis among patent portfolios owned by stake holders, however, Google may need additional patents to make more competitive patent portfolio.

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition. LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.

1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?
2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?
3. Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. InterDigital v. Motorola).
4. Who is the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the business integration and/or compatibility? (e.g. LG + Nortel)
5.What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

InterDigital Patent Acquisition Strategic Options

2011-08-23T09:45:00.003-04:00

Following the recent big deal regarding Nortel's patents and Motorola's patents, InterDigital's patents are scheduled to be the next big acquisition deal.

As to the seller, it is a good opportunity considering the uncertainty of future money making power in emerging LTE licensing market: InterDigital's licensing power in LTE is expected to be weaker compare to the situations in 2G and 3G based on TechIPm's LTE essential patent analysis over the past 3 years.

As to the buyers, it is also a good opportunity not only to make up their current LTE patent portfolio but also to get additional cash flow source through the existing InterDigital's licensing agreement.

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition. LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.

1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?
2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?
3. Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. InterDigital v. Motorola).
4. Who are the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the business integration and/or compatibility?
5.What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Wireless Patent Auditing for Essential Portfolio Evaluation and Development

2011-08-22T07:19:00.007-04:00

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides wireless patent auditing service for essential patent portfolio evaluation and development.

Methodology

1. Auditing for the complete set of essential patent candidates:

Review the current USPTO database published and issued by a specific assignee.
Review the current applications pending in USPTO by a specific assignee..
Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology and standards.
*Possible standards are LTE (including LTE-Advanced), WiFi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ad/af), WRAN (IEEE 802.22), Zigbee (IEEE 802.15), and NFC.

2. Standard analysis:

Specifications for commercial products.

3. Patent portfolio evaluation:

Claim mappings for essential patent candidates.

4. Investigate embodiments that can support the rewriting of existing claim:

Analysis for invalidity of the essential patent candidate.
Construct the model claims considering the prosecution history.

Deliverables

1. Patent portfolio landsacpe by technology and standard specifications.

2. Claim mapping tables.

3. Model claims that make the candidate essential patent.

4. Report for prosecution history and invalidity analysis.

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patents Due Diligence for Mobile Business Acquisition

2011-08-20T11:29:00.009-04:00

TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition. LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.

1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?

Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology in the standard specifications Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modulation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI), Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, and HARQ. Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE radio protocol: Random Access, HARQ, Channel Prioritization, Scheduling (Dynamic, SPS), Protocol Format (PDUs, SDUs), Radio Link Control (ARQ), PDCP Process (SRB, DRB, ROHC), Security (Ciphering, Integrity), System Information, Connection Control, and Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).

Evaluate the level of essentiality
Essentiality Index (EI): E1 : Patent disclosure is weakly related to LTE technical specifications E2 : Patent disclosure is partially related to LTE technical specifications E3 : Patent disclosure is related to LTE technical specifications overall E4.

2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?

Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. Nokia v. Motorola) by technology.

Answer for what critical holes in patent landscape are there to be filled & who has patent portfolio to fill those holes.

3. Who are the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the business integration and/or compatibility?

4. What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Essential Patent Candidates 3Q 2011

2011-07-15T12:00:00.007-04:00

To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included. More than 1,400 LTE related patents, issued and published applications in the US as of Aug. 15, 2011, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

Total of 184 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential patent. The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent candidates are Ericsson, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, NSN, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, TI, and ZTE.

Among the 184 essential patent candidates 53 patent candidates are issued (including in allowance status) as of Aug. 15, 2011: LG (25), Nokia (7), Nortel (6), Motorola (5), Samsung (3), InterDigital (2), TI (2), Ericsson (2), Qualcomm (1).

For details, please refer LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data:

LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data is the TechIPm's product based on LTE patents research for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data provides assignee, patent number, related 3GPP TS36 specifications, and the key technology components for an implementation of the products.

For details about the product, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com

LTE Patent Portfolio Evaluation Service

TechIPm, LLC (www.techipm.com) provides patent portfolio evaluation service for LTE commercial products.

Methodology

1. Search for LTE related patents.

l Search the current USPTO database for published and issued patents
l Search the ETSI database for LTE standard specifications
l 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications for the LTE RAN (Radio Access Network):
l PHY: TS 36.211, 212, 213
l L2/L3 Protocols: TS 36.321, 322, 323, 331, 304
l * LTE RAN products: LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) baseband modem and radio SW products

2. Review the searched patents for essential patent candidates.

l Review the patents in portfolio
l Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology in the standard specifications
Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modulation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI), Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, and HARQ.
Key technology components for an implementation of the LTE radio protocol: Random Access, HARQ, Channel Prioritization, Scheduling (Dynamic, SPS), Protocol Format (PDUs, SDUs), Radio Link Control (ARQ), PDCP Process (SRB, DRB, ROHC), Security (Ciphering, Integrity), System Information, Connection Control, and Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).
l Evaluate the level of essentiality
Essentiality Index (EI): E1 : Patent disclosure is weakly related to LTE technical specifications E2 : Patent disclosure is partially related to LTE technical specifications E3 : Patent disclosure is related to LTE technical specifications overall E4 : Patent disclosure is strongly related to LTE technical specifications
*To be a potential essential patent candidate, EI should be E3 or E4.

3. Patent analysis.

l Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. Nortel v. Motorola) by technology
l Interpretation for competitive intelligence

Deliverables

MS excel file for the patent essential patent candidates (patent number, standard specification section number, technology category, and essentiality level).
MS power point file for patent analysis.

For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com .

Green Wireless ICT Innovation Mining

2011-04-16T13:38:00.013-04:00

Currently, about 3 % of the world-wide energy is consumed by the ICT infrastructure, which causes about 2 % of the worldwide CO2 emissions. According to Green Touch™ (http://www.greentouch.org/), a global consortium organized by Bell Labs to address green ecosystem in ICT industry, ICT networks could potentially be 10.000 times more efficient than they are today. Green Touch™ aims to create 1000-fold improvement in energy efficiency by transforming ICT infrastructure globally utilizing innovative technologies.

Considering the fact that energy consumption of wireless networks is growing much faster than ICT on the whole, the development of energy-efficient wireless technologies is imperative. The potential candidates are cognitive green radios, intelligent communication protocols, energy-aware networks, advanced smart antennas, and opportunistic spectrum management.

As an indicator of innovation status for green wireless technologies, patents among global market leaders are researched. To find the key IPR holders, a keyword search of the USPTO, EPO, WIPO, and JPO patent data base has been performed as of April 15, 2011.

Among the total of 155 IPR holders, Qualcomm is the leader followed by Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung Electronics, Alcatel Lucent, NTT DoCoMo, Huawei, InterDigital, LG Electronics, and Motorola.

http://www.techipm.com/

Emerging Wireless Technologies Innovation Leader: 4G LTE, M2M, Cognitive Radio

2011-03-20T10:56:00.006-04:00

As an indicator of innovation status for emerging wireless communications technologies, patents among US market leaders are researched. To find the key IPR holders, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed as of Feb. 28, 2011.

Following emerging wireless technologies are included in the research:

1. LTE-Advanced:It is one of major technology for 4G (IMT-Advanced) under standardization by 3GPP release 10. The key technologies in standard specifications are carrier aggregation, HetNet, Relay, SON, and SU-MIMO.

2. Gigabit WLAN: It is 60 GHz unlicensed band wireless systems, which can carry Gbps of data, enable several new applications: high definition video streaming wireless in real time, high speed wireless gaming, and wireless docking and connection to displays. IEEE 802.11ad was formed in January 2009 to make industry standard for 60 GHz wireless systems as an amendment to the existing IEEE 802.11-2007 (modifications to the 802.11 PHY and the 802.11 MAC).

3. Gognitive radio in TVWS: The technologies for the cognitive radios over TV white space are under standardization by IEEE 802.22 and 802.11af.

4. Zigbee for M2M: ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh networking standard based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 for Wireless Personal Area Networks. Zigbee is one of key enableing technologies for M2M (Machine-to-Machine) applications: smart grids. connected home, building automation, mobile helath, security, and automatic control.

5. NFC: Near field communication is a short-range wireless technology for mobile transaction applications. Industry standard for NFC technology is under development by the NFC Forum.

Among the total of 44 IPR holders, Samsung Electronics is the leader followed by Broadcom, Motorola, Qualcomm, Philips, Nokia, LG Electronics, Intel, STMicroelectonics, and Microsoft.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Zigbee for M2M Patent Landscape 1Q 2011

2011-03-14T12:37:00.002-04:00

ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh networking standard based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 for Wireless Personal Area Networks. Zigbee is one of key enableing technologies for M2M (Machine-to-Machine) applications: smart grids. connected home, building automation, mobile helath, security, and automatic control.

To find the key IPR holders for zigbee for M2M patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. Total of 864 patents (727 published patent applications) are identified as of Feb. 28, 2011. Samsung Electronics is the leader followed by Philips, Abbott Diabetes Care, ITRI, LG Electronics, Motorola, and RIM.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

S. Korea's Innovation leadership in Emerging Wireless Technologies

2011-03-14T08:05:00.010-04:00

In its special report "Best Country in the World," Newsweek ranked S. Korea as the second in education and the third in economic dynamism (http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2010/08/15/best-countries-in-the-world.html). In its special research "The Global Broadband Spectrum," Technology Review ranked S. Korea as the world's best in the high-speed networks infrastructure(http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/25567/).

S. Korean government deserves receiving most of the credit for these successes. S. Korean government’s continuing innovation policy in collaboration with private sectors facilitated the rapid growth and successful implementations.

Global market leadership in mobile communications is the best practice resulting from such collaboration. In recent TechIPm's research for innovation leadership in emerging wireless communications technologies also implied S. Korea's continuing leadership in future wireless/mobile market (http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8787276634250924282&postID=2464749080961477247).

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE-Advanced Patent Landscape 1Q 2011

2011-03-09T13:38:00.006-05:00

LTE-Advanced is one of major technology for 4G (IMT-Advanced) standards. LTE patent portfolios are researched among US market leaders. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE-Advanced patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed.

Total of 317 published patent applications are identified as of Feb. 28, 2011. Qualcomm is the leader followed by InterDigital, AT&T, Samsung, RIM, LG, and Motorola as of Feb. 28, 2011.

The distribution of LTE-Advanced patents among the key technologies in standard specifications is as follows:
Carrier Aggregation (17%), HetNet (12%), Relay (53%), SON (11%), and SU-MIMO (7%).

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

60 GHz Wireless Systems Patent Landscape

2011-02-27T19:57:00.003-05:00

60 GHz unlicensed band wireless systems, which can carry Gbps of data, enable several new applications: high definition video streaming wireless in real time, high speed wireless gaming, and wireless docking and connection to displays.

IEEE 802.11ad was formed in January 2009 to make industry standard for 60 GHz wireless systems as an amendment to the existing IEEE 802.11-2007 (modifications to the 802.11 PHY and the 802.11 MAC).

To find the technology innovation status of 60 GHz wireless systems, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. Total of 177 60 GHz wireless systems patents (38 issued patents and 139 published applications) in the US as of Feb. 28 2011 are identified.

Broadcom was the leader in the 60 GHz wireless system technology innovations followed by Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Intel, Nokia, NICT, and Toshiba.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data

2011-02-25T07:47:00.003-05:00

LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data is the TechIPm's product based on LTE patents research for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures.

To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included. Total of 1327 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of December 31, 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data provides assignee, patent number, related 3GPP TS36 specifications, and the key technology components for an implementation of the products for total of 152 patents (15 issued patents and 137 published applications) that are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential patent.

For details about the product, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com

LTE Patent Licensing: Pool v. Bilateral

2011-01-18T09:57:00.005-05:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) product (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, base station equipments) manufactures to find out Qualcomm’s and InterDigital's licensing power for LTE essential patents. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

Total of 1327 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of December 31, 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN standards. 3GPP standard specifications for LTE baseband modem are consist of three core parts: OFDM/MIMO Processor (TS36.211), Channel Coder (TS36.212), and Control SW (TS36.213). 3GPP standard specifications for LTE radio protocol SW are consist of four core parts: MAC (TS36.321), RLC (TS36.322), PDCP (TS36.323), and RRC (TS36.331). To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications. Total of 152 patents (15 issued patents and 137 published applications) are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential patent.

The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent candidates are Ericsson, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, NSN, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, and TI. Among 15 LTE essential patent candidate shareholders, Ericsson, InterDigital, and Qualcomm expressly stated their interest in bilateral licensing for LTE essential patents. The bilateral licensing proponents' IPR share is 38% of the identified potential candidates.

To evaluate the licensing power of the bilateral licensing proponents, The identified essential patent candidates are classified by the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE RAN products: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modulation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI), Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, HARQ, Random Access, Channel Prioritization, Scheduling (Dynamic, SPS), Protocol Format (PDUs, SDUs), Radio Link Control (ARQ), PDCP Process (SRB, DRB, ROHC), Security (Ciphering, Integrity), System Information, Connection Control, and Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).

The bilateral licensing proponents’ LTE RAN essential patent portfolio shows the licensing competitiveness over others only in power control. The analysis shows a possibility of forming the LTE patent pool without the bilateral licensing proponents.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC
All Rights Reserved

LTE RAN Products Licensing Power: Qualcomm v. InterDigital v. Samsung

2011-01-12T09:17:00.004-05:00

To evaluate the licensing power among LTE IPR shareholders, the identified essential patent candidates are classified by the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE RAN products: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modulation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI), Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, HARQ, Random Access, Channel Prioritization, Scheduling (Dynamic, SPS), Protocol Format (PDUs, SDUs), Radio Link Control (ARQ), PDCP Process (SRB, DRB, ROHC), Security (Ciphering, Integrity), System Information, Connection Control, and Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).

Qualcomm’s LTE RAN essential patent portfolio shows the licensing competitiveness over Samsung in cell search & connection, mobility, OFDM/OFDMA, and power control.

InterDigital’s LTE RAN essential patent portfolio shows the licensing competitiveness over Samsung in cell search & connection, mobility, security, and power control.

©2011 TechIPm, LLC
All Rights Reserved

LTE Patents Essential for RAN Products 1Q 2011

2011-01-01T08:30:00.010-05:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included. Total of 1327 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of December 31, 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards.

3GPP standard specifications for LTE baseband modem are consist of three core parts: OFDM/MIMO Processor (TS36.211), Channel Coder (TS36.212), and Control SW (TS36.213). 3GPP standard specifications for LTE radio protocol SW are consist of four core parts: MAC (TS36.321), RLC (TS36.322), PDCP (TS36.323), and RRC (TS36.331).

An essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. Thus, if a LTE product is implemented following the standard specifications, it should infringe some essential patents. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

Total of 152 patents (15 issued patents and 137 published applications) are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential patent. The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent candidates are Ericsson, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, NSN, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, and TI. Among 15 LTE essential patent candidate shareholders, the top 5 IPR shareholders - InterDigital, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung - are appeared as the key member candidates for a successful LTE patent pool formation and operation.

Total of 84 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE baseband modem essential IPR and total of 68 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE protocol SW essential IPR. Leading in IPR share indicates governance in licensing and a high in profit expectation through licensing royalty. As to the essential IPR share in baseband modem products, Qualcomm is the leader followed by LG, Samsung, Nokia, and InterDigital as of December 31, 2010. As to the essential IPR share in protocol SW products, LG is the leader followed by Qualcomm, InterDigital, Nokia, and Samsung as of December 31, 2010.

The distribution of essential patent candidates among the standard specifications is as follows:
TS36.211 (32%), TS36.212 (7%), TS36.213 (17%), TS36.321 (21%), TS36.322 (6%), TS36.323 (5%), and TS36.331 (12%).

©2011 TechIPm, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Patents for Cognitive Radio over TVWS 3Q 2010

2010-11-05T08:18:00.004-04:00

Cognitive radios are the essential enabler for using a whitespace in TV spectrum bandwidth by finding free spectrum in the TV band. In December 2008, Philips, Samsung, HP, TI, ETRI and GeorgiaTech announced the formation of a new group called the Cognitive Networking
Alliance (CogNeA). CogNeA aims to drive the definition and adoption of an industry-wide standard for low power personal and portable devices to operate over TV White Spaces.

The technologies for the cognitive radios over TV white space are under standardization by IEEE. The technologies for the cognitive radios over TV white space can also be applied to
4G LTE: Femtocell FAP and Self-organizing networks (SONs).

To find the technology innovation status of cognitive radio over TVWS, a keyword search of
the USPTO patent data base has been performed. Total of 701 cognitive radio over TVWS related patents (158 issued patents and 543 published applications) in the US as of Sept. 30 2010 are identified.

Samsung Electronics was the leader in the cognitive radio over TVWS technology innovations followed by Motorola, and Qualcomm.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Essential Patent Information Portal: S.Korea's National Strategy for IT Leadership

2010-09-27T09:38:00.006-04:00

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) opened the essential patent information portal (http://www.epcenter.or.kr/) in order to support IPR (Intellectual Property Right) in standardization activity. Operation of the portal site is a part of S. Korea's national strategies to keep global leadership in information technology by implementing the strategic alliances in "R&D - Standardization - IPR".

The portal provides the essential patent DB in the global standardization organizations such as ISO, ITU, IEEE, ETSI, and 3GPP as well as the patent pools such as MPEG, IEEE 1394, ATSC, AVC/H.264, and VC-1.

The portal also provides mentoring services in essential patent development for S. Korean industries through the operation of essential patent expert pool.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

Qualcomm's LTE Patent Governance

2010-08-14T11:26:00.005-04:00

Qualcomm have enjoyed the governance in patents on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology it pioneered. As every 3G network uses CDMA technology, Qualcomm was able to license its patents in exchange for a royalty payment that's 4-5% of selling prices on 3G enabled phones.

Recently TechIPm LLC researched LTE patent portfolios for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. Total of 1250 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of May 31 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

Total of 72 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE baseband modem essential IPR and total of 62 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE protocol SW essential IPR. As for the essential IPR share in baseband modem products, Qualcomm (27 %) is the leader followed by Samsung (18%), LG (18%), InterDigital (7%), Nokia (7%), Motorola (6%), and TI (6%) and as for the essential IPR share in protocol SW products, LG (43 %) is the leader followed by InterDigital (19%), Qualcomm (18%), and Nokia (16%) as of May 31 2010.

The top 5 IPR shareholders - InterDigital, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung (total IPR share of 87%) - are appeared as the key member candidates for a successful LTE patent pool formation and operation.

Top 5 LTE essential IP shareholders’ patent portfolios, classified by the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem, are compared to excess the innovation competitiveness. Qualcomm’s patent portfolio was distributed among all the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem.

Among the total of 134 identified patents as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential IP only 7 candidates are the issued patents. As the prosecution for the published applications is an ongoing process, it is necessary to watch for a possible IP landscape change. A complete LTE RAN essential IP landscape is expected in two to three years as the current prosecution process for the published and unpublished pending patent applications are finished for a complete set of issued patent data pool.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

InterDigital's LTE Patent Licensing Revenue

2010-07-31T07:16:00.003-04:00

In recent InterDigital's announce for the second quarter financial result, William J. Merritt, InterDigital's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented that "We expect to continue our strong financial performance as we further expand our base of customers. In particular, we are focusing on expanding our customer base for LTE technology. We have made significant contributions to the worldwide standards bodies in several key areas of LTE technology, including power control, bandwidth on-demand, interference reduction and higher data throughput. These areas are central to the user experience and key to unlocking the potential of wireless communications," continued Mr. Merritt. "With our pioneering wireless technologies, InterDigital continues to be a leader in building innovative solutions, benefiting users, device manufacturers and operators worldwide."

To evaluate the future revinue expectation from LTE patent licensing, TechIPm, LLC researched InterDigital's LTE patent portfolio in LTE Patents for Commercial Products 2Q 2010: http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2010/07/lte-essential-patent-research-report.html

Total of 134 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE essential patent, and InterDigital was amonng the top 5 IPR shareholders - InterDigital, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung (total IPR share of 87%).

Based on the research result, InterDigital's expected income from the essential IP licensing for LTE modem is roughly estimated to be about $0.07 - $0.14 billion.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Essential Patent Research Report

2010-07-01T14:48:00.003-04:00

TechIPm's LTE Research Report

Title:
LTE Patents for Commercial Products 2Q 2010

Key Value Proposion:

Details about the LTE patent search method

Detais about the essentiality analysis steps

Innovation competitor analysis for LTE commercial products (digital baseband modem, L2/L3 radio protocol)

Qualcom & InterDigital's expected licencing income for LTE essential IP

White Space Analysis for Patent Portfolio Development

Contents:

Executive Summary

I. Patent Data Pool
1.1 LTE Patents Data Pool
1.2 LTE Patent Search Details

II. Patent Evaluation
2.1 Essentiality Analysis
2.2 LTE RAN Technical Specifications Details
2.3 Essentiality Analysis Details

III. Patent for Modem Product
3.1 LTE Baseband Modem Products
3.2 LTE Essential IP for Baseband Modem Products
3.3 Technology Innovation Analysis for LTE Modem
3.4 LTE Modem Innovation Competitor Analysis

IV. Patent for Protocol Product
4.1 LTE Radio Protocol Products
4.2 LTE Essential IP for Protocol Products
4.3 Technology Innovation Analysis for LTE Protocol
4.4 LTE Protocol Innovation Competitor Analysis

V. Strategic Patent Analysis
5.1 LTE IPR Governance & Patent Pool
5.2 LTE IP Landscape Change & NPE Issues
5.3 LTE Essential IP Asset Valuation
5.4 White Space Analysis for Patent Portfolio Development

Appendix
A1. Essential Patent Claim Drafting Strategy
A2. Patent Portfolio Development Method

For details, please contect Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com

LTE Essential IP for Protocol SW Products

2010-06-19T11:35:00.005-04:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

Total of 1250 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of May 31 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards. 3GPP standard specifications for LTE radio protocol are consist of four core parts: MAC (TS36.321), RLC (TS36.322), PDCP (TS36.323), and RRC (TS36.331).

An essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. Thus, if a LTE product is implemented following the standard specifications, it should infringe some essential patents. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

Total of 62 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE radio protocol essential IPR. Leading in IPR share indicates a governance in licensing and a high in profit expectation through licensing royalty. As for the essential IPR share in protocol SW products, LG (43 %) is the leader followed by InterDigital (19%), Qualcomm (18%), and Nokia (16%) as of May 31 2010.
To excess the technology innovation for LTE radio protocol, the identified essential patents are classified as the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE radio protocol: Random Access, HARQ, Channel Prioritization, Scheduling (Dynamic, SPS), Protocol Format (PDUs, SDUs), Radio Link Control (ARQ), PDCP Process (SRB, DRB, ROHC), Security (Ciphering, Integrity), System Information, Connection Control, and Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).

Based on the number of essential patent candidates, the most intensive field of technology innovation is the Mobility (19%) followed by Scheduling (15%).

The innovation landscape analysis could reveal the white space in LTE radio protocol technology for further development of essential patent portfolio through the patent engineering methodology (http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lte-patent-engineering-for-essential-portfolio-development-case-study-for-qualcomms-strategy).

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

Smartphone Patent War: Google & Android Coalition's Air Strike

2010-06-16T20:05:00.007-04:00

According to recent article in etnews (http://www.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=201006160208&mc=m_012_00001), Google appears to be preparing a big air strike in smartphone patent lawsuit. In response to the Apple's patent battle against to the Google's Android OS based smatphone (e.g. Apple's ITC complaint against HTC), Google is calling for the 'Andriod Coalition' by asking smartphone patents to major Android smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung and LG.

It is well known that Apple's smatphone patent wall is very thick and strong with more than 200 patents including the famous multi-touch technology (for the smartphone patent landscape, please refer http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2010/04/smartphone-patents-for-ui-key.html).
Could the Andriod Coalition's patent bomb be strong enough to break the Apple's smatphone patent fortress?

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Essential IP for Baseband Modem Products

2010-06-15T06:52:00.006-04:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

Total of 1250 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of May 31 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards. 3GPP standard specifications for LTE baseband modem are consist of three core parts: OFDM/MIMO Processor (TS36.211), Channel Coder (TS36.212), and Control SW (TS36.213).

An essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. Thus, if a LTE product is implemented following the standard specifications, it should infringe some essential patents. To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

Total of 72 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE baseband modem essential IPR. Leading in IPR share indicates a governance in licensing and a high in profit expectation through licensing royalty. As for the essential IPR share in baseband modem products, Qualcomm (27 %) is the leader followed by Samsung (18%), LG (18%), InterDigital (7%), Nokia (7%), Motorola (6%), and TI (6%) as of May 31 2010.

To excess the technology innovation for LTE baseband modem, the identified essential patents are classified as the key technology components for an implementation of the LTE baseband modem: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modulation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI), Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, and HARQ.

Based on the number of essential patent candidates, the most intensive field of technology innovation is the Resource Management (20%) followed by Cell Search & Connection (15%), and Channel Estimation (14%).

The innovation landscape analysis could reveal the white space in LTE modem technology for further development of essential patent portfolio through the patent engineering methodology (http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lte-patent-engineering-for-essential-portfolio-development-case-study-for-qualcomms-strategy).

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE IPR Governance for Commercial Products

2010-06-12T15:14:00.007-04:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

Total of 1250 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of May 31 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards.

3GPP standard specifications for LTE baseband modem are consist of three core parts: OFDM/MIMO Processor (TS36.211), Channel Coder (TS36.212), and Control SW (TS36.213). 3GPP standard specifications for LTE radio protocol SW are consist of four core parts: MAC (TS36.321), RLC (TS36.322), PDCP (TS36.323), and RRC (TS36.331).

An essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. Thus, if a LTE product is implemented following the standard specifications, it should infringe some essential patents.

To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.

Total of 72 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE baseband modem essential IPR and total of 62 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE protocol SW essential IPR. Leading in IPR share indicates a governance in licensing and a high in profit expectation through licensing royalty.

As for the essential IPR share in baseband modem products, Qualcomm (27 %) is the leader followed by Samsung (18%), LG (18%), InterDigital (7%), Nokia (7%), Motorola (6%), and TI (6%) as of May 31 2010.

As for the essential IPR share in protocol SW products, LG (43 %) is the leader followed by InterDigital (19%), Qualcomm (18%), and Nokia (16%) as of May 31 2010.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

RFID Patent Lawsuit Early Warning

2010-06-06T16:07:00.004-04:00

According to the recent article by Bloomberg Businessweek, entitled "Billion-Dollar Lawyer Desmarais Quits Firm to Troll for Patents" (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-01/billion-dollar-lawyer-desmarais-quits-firm-to-troll-for-patents.html), Round Rock Research LLC became the second-largest NPE following the Intellectual Ventures by acquiring a portfolio of 4,500 patents from Micron Technology Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of semiconductor chips. Round Rock Research LLC is founded by John Desmarais, a famous patent attorney for his won in a $1.52 billion verdict for Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft in 2007.

One interesting point to me is that the Micron Technology is one of key IPR holders in RFID essential technologies. According to the patent research for major RFID IPR shareholders (http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/rfid-innovation-frontline-2009-1-q), Micron Technology held a portfolio of 123 issued RFID patents in the US as of January 1, 2009.

As John Desmarais is starting a look for potential infringers of the patents owned by Round Rock Research, a big patent lawsuit could happen someday when the current fragmented RFID market is matured and money making products are appeared.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patent Pool Shareholder Candidates

2010-05-21T19:32:00.005-04:00

Total of 1238 LTE patents, issued and published applications in the US as of May 1 2010, are analyzed to find essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (PHY & Radio Protocols) standards. LTE PHY (physical layer) standards are described in 3GPP specifications TS36.211, TS36.212, and TS36.213. LTE radio protocols standards are described in 3GPP specifications TS36.321, TS36.322, TS36.323, and TS36.331.

LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards are essential for an implementation of mobile user equipments (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) products. An essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. Thus, if a LTE product is implemented following the standard specifications, it should infringe some essential patents.

To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications. Total of 134 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN essential patent.

The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent are Ericsson, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, and TI. Among 14 LTE essential patent candidates shareholders, LG is the leader (30%). The top 5 IPR shareholders - InterDigital, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung (total IPR share of 87%) - are appeared as the key member candidates for a successful LTE patent pool formation and operation.

Smartphone Patents for UI Key Technologies

2010-04-23T18:40:00.006-04:00

To find the key IPR holders for the Smartphone UI (User Interface), a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, and WIPO (PCT)) has been performed.

As of April 23 2010, the key IPR holders and their IPR share for the Smartphone UI are as follows:

1. Patents for multi-touch technology (total of 120 patent applications and issued patents)

Apple (99, 82%), LG (3, 2%), Samsung (3, 2%), Hong Fu Jin Precision (2, 1%), and RIM (2, 1%)

2. Patents for optical joystick technology (total of 34 patent applications and issued patents) Philips (10, 29%), Samsung (8, 23%), Crucial Tec (5, 15%), and NXP B.V. (5, 15%)

3. Patents for projected capacitive touch screen technology (total of 213 patent applications and issued patents)

RIM (184, 86%), Sony Ericsson (6, 3%), 3M (6, 3%), and Nokia (3, 1%)

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Mobile Patents in Lawsuit: Nokia, Apple, Microunity, Smartphone Tech Cases

2010-04-21T16:12:00.007-04:00

1. Smartphone Patent War

An Explosion of Mobile Patent Lawsuits: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/an-explosion-of-mobile-patent lawsuits/?scp=1&sq=An%20Explosion%20of%20Mobile%20Patent%20Lawsuits&st=cse

Nokia Sues Apple Over Patent Infringements: http://gigaom.com/2009/10/22/nokia-sues-apple-over-patent-infringements/

Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/03/02patents.html

Microunity sues mobile giants for patent infringement Broad suit names 22 companies and 15 processor patents: http://www.hadronanalytics.com/blog/?p=389

SmartPhone Technologies LLC has filed a lawsuit against Apple, AT&T, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, and Motorola: http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=5627

Elan patent lawsuit threatens Apple: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/04/14/240893/elan-patent-lawsuit-threatens-apple-ipad.htm

2. Patents in Nokia’s patent-infringement complaint with the US District Court in Delaware

3. Patents in Apple’s patent-infringement complaint with the ITC

4. Patents in Microunity Systems’ patent-infringement complaint with the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas

6. Patents in Smartphone Tech’s patent-infringement complaint with the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas

7. Patents in Elan Microelectronics’s patent-infringement complaint with the ITC

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/mobile-patents-in-lawsuit

ⓒ2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Smartphone & 4G Mobile Trends & Issues 1Q 2010

2010-04-18T08:16:00.003-04:00

Trend and Issue analysis of patent, technology, market, and S. Korea for smartphone & 4G mobile communication:

I. Smart Phone

1.1 4G & Smart Phone Innovation Frontiers in 2010
1.2 4G Smart Phone Chip Innovation Frontiers
1.3 4G Smart Phone Innovation Cluster in S. Korea
1.4 4G Mobile IPTV Services in S. Korea
1.5 Mobile Cloud Computing Test-Bed in S. Korea
1.6 Qualcomm’s Mobile R&D Center in S. Korea

II. LTE

2.1 LTE Essential Patent Candidates Landscape
2.2 LTE Essential Patent Candidates for LTE Modem
2.3 LTE Modem Innovation Leader: Samsung & LG
2.4 LTE Products Competitor Analysis

III. LTE-Advanced

3.1 LTE -Advanced Patent Analysis
3.2 Mobile Heterogeneous Network Patent Landscape
3.3 Cognitive Radio Patent Landscape

IV. Mobile WiMAX

4.1 New Mobile WiMAX Services in S. Korea

V. Intellectual Property

5.1 Nortel's LTE Patents Valuation
5.2 NPEs (Patent Trolls) in Mobile Telecommunications
5.3 Invention Capital in S. Korea

VI. New Opportunities in Korea’s Testing Market

6.1 Testing Market for Emerging Technologies in IT & Telecom
6.2 Commercialization as Dominant Design Strategy
6.3 National Strategy for 4G & Beyond 4G Mobile Innovation
6.4 National Strategy for Green IT Innovation
6.5 M2M: S. Korean Telco’s New Strategic Options
6.6 Songdo u-City: Global IT Innovation Hub
6.7 Future Network 2020 Forum
6.8 3D Industry Supporting Center in S. Korea

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/smartphone-4g-mobile-trends-issues

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Products Competitor Analysis 2010 1Q

2010-04-12T04:54:00.009-04:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE product manufactures. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

As of April 10 2010, there were total of 1227 (786 patents from the ETSI IPR Online website and 441 patents form the keyword search) issued patents and published patent applications.

The key IPR holders and their IPR share for LTE patents are as follows:

1. LTE US Patent Landscape:
Qualcomm (318, 26%), InterDigital (194, 16%), LG (121, 10%), Nokia (107, 9%), Samsung (77, 6%), and Ericsson (64, 5%)

2. LTE US Patents for LTE Mobile Phone Products:
LG (121), Nokia (107), Samsung (77), and Motorola (31)

3. LTE US Patents for LTE Infrastructure Products:
Ericsson (64), Nortel (35), NEC (9), Alcatel-Lucent (7), NSN (7), and Huawei (4)

4. LTE US Patents for LTE Chipset Products:
Qualcomm (318), TI (30), Infineon (5), and Freescale Semiconductor (4)

5. LTE US Patents for LTE Information & Computing Products:
RIM (15), Sharp (10), Sony (6), Panasonic (1), and Toshiba (1)

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Cognitive Radio Patent Landscape 2010 1Q

2010-04-04T14:40:00.003-04:00

Cognitive Radio is an emerging technology for intelligent wireless communications. Cognitive Radio is able to dynamically adapt to radio environment to maximize the flexible utilization of the limited spectrum resources.

To find the key IPR holders for the Cognitive Radio, a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JPO, and WIPO (PCT)) has been performed. As of March 31 2010, the key IPR holders and their IPR share for the Cognitive Radio (total of 360 published and issued patent applications) are as follows:

Motorola (49, 14%), Samsung (49, 14%), Qualcomm (28, 8%), Nokia (27, 8%), Philips (19, 5%), ETRI (15, 4%), Toshiba (14, 4%), MS (13, 4%), HONG KONG UST (12, 3%), and STMicroelectronics (11, 3%).

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Heterogeneous Network Patent Landscape 2010 1Q

2010-04-01T05:03:00.002-04:00

Mobile Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) is a key technology for 4G mobile implementation. The mobile HetNet is under standardization by 3GPP as a part of LTE-advanced standards. 3GPP’s LTE-Advanced is one of candidates for ITU-R's (International Telecommunication Union – Radio Communication) 4G mobile communication (IMT-Advanced) standards. The IMT-Advanced standards establishment is scheduled to be early 2011 through the expert evaluation process.

To find the key IPR holders for the mobile HetNet, a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JPO, and WIPO (PCT)) has been performed. As of March 31 2010, the key IPR holders and their IPR share for the mobile HetNet (total of 192 published and issued patent applications) are as follows:

Samsung (16, 15%), LG (13, 12%), Matsushita Electric (9, 8%), NSN (8, 7%), NTT DoCoMo (7, 6%), Huawei (6, 6%), Qualcomm (6, 6%), Toshiba (6, 6%), Broadcom (5, 5%), Alcatel-Lucent (4, 4%), ETRI (4, 4%), Nokia (4, 4%), Ericsson (3, 3%), and Motorola (3, 3%).

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE-Advanced Global Patent Landscape 2010 1Q

2010-03-29T11:11:00.009-04:00

3GPP’s LTE-Advanced is one of candidates for ITU-R's (International Telecommunication Union – Radio Communication) 4G mobile communication (IMT-Advanced) standards. The IMT-Advanced standards establishment is scheduled to be early 2011 through the expert evaluation process.

To find the key IPR holders for the LTE-Advanced, a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, and WIPO (PCT)) has been performed.

As of March 29 2010, the key IPR holders and their IPR share for the LTE-Advanced (total of 260 patent applications) are as follows:

1. Patent Landscape by Assignee's Country

USA (133, 55%), S. Korea (37, 15%), Finland (20, 8%), Sweden (16, 7%), Canada (7, 3%), and China (7, 3%)

2. Patent Landscape by Assignee

Qualcomm (101, 48%), LG (33, 16%), Ericsson (17, 8%), NSN (13, 6%), AT&T Mobility (12, 6%), and Nokia (9, 4%)

3. Patent Landscape by Technology

Relay technology for improving cell coverage and/or user throughput (96), SU-MIMO for improving spectrum usage efficiency (18), and Carrier Aggregation for flexible radio resource allocation (14)

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Essential Patent Claim Drafting Strategy: LTE Case Study

2010-03-19T15:05:00.005-04:00

Essential patent is defined as a patent that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. Essential Patent holds unique characteristic as an intellectual property in a sense that every commercial product should infringe the patent if a product is compatible with the standard. Thus the construction of claims in the essential patent should somewhat different from the case of conventional patent.

LTE is standardized through the 3GPP, and the specification for LTE mobile system (UE and base station) is published as TS 36 series. As the start of worldwide deployment of LTE mobile services, leading mobile equipment vendors, such as Ericsson, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung, are introducing various innovative LTE products. As the market for LTE products increases, aggressive efforts for holding the LTE essential patents are also intensified among LTE innovation leaders and OEM product manufactures.

Analysis of claims for the essential candidates in lists of patents declared essential to LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website suggests several strategy factors in drafting essential patent applications:

Strategy 1. Write the claim using several statutory claim types.

Strategy 2. Claim the invention in all of its commercially significant setting.

Strategy 3. Use claim terms which can match with a specific term in the standard.

For details about the case study, please refer

Ref. http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lte-essential-patent-claim-drafting-strategy

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patent Portfolio Development Strategy

2010-03-17T08:30:00.005-04:00

As the start of worldwide deployment of LTE mobile services, leading mobile equipment vendors, such as Ericsson, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung, are introducing various innovative LTE products.

A new study from Juniper Research showed that revenues from LTE mobile broadband subscribers will exceed $70 billion globally by 2014, and recent research by In-Stat found that the total value of global end-use LTE device market will exceed $2 billion by 2013. As the market for LTE products increases, aggressive efforts for holding the LTE patent portfolios (essential patents) are also intensified among LTE innovation leaders and OEM product manufactures.

Essential patent is defined as patents that contain one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized technology. LTE is standardized through the 3GPP, and the specification for LTE mobile system (UE and base station for EPS) is published as TS 36 series. A typical way to develop the essential patent is to participate in the standardization process and try to get IPRs for the standards in parallel (strategic alignment between standardization and IPR).

Without the strategic alignment between standardization and IPR process, however, there is an alternative way to develop the essential patent portfolios through patent engineering process. The LTE patent engineering process utilizes the existing patent portfolios.

The patent engineering process for LTE essential patent development is as follows.

Step 1: Audit the existing patents to compare with the LTE TS36 series specification.

Step 2: Investigate the embodiments of the patent which are relevant to the specifications.

Step 3: Design the claim terms to be essential to the implementation of the specification.

Step 4: File the essential patent candidate through continuation or reissue process.

For case study of Qualcomm, please refer
Ref. http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lte-patent-engineering-for-essential-portfolio-development-case-study-for-qualcomms-strategy

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Modem Innovation Leader: Samsung & LG

2010-03-11T08:25:00.003-05:00

In Mobile World Congress 2010, Samsung Electronics demonstrated live video streaming via the company’s own LTE network equipment on the Samsung netbook N150. Samsung also introduced the dongle type device GT-B3710 equipped with LTE baseband modem.

In recent TechIPm's analysis for LTE essential patent candidates (published patent applications and issued patents in the United States (USPTO) before March 1, 2010), Samsung ranked the second in IPR share for LTE baseband modem products. Essentiality analysis of the Samsung's LTE IPR also showed high quality of Samsung's LTE patent portfolio (ref. http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/08/samsungs-lte-ipr-analysis-essential.html).

LG Electronics recently announced that its LD100 data modem has become LTE modem device to receive Telecom Engineering Center (TELEC) certification in Japan. LG already had an approval from the FCC in the US before the TELEC certification.

In recent TechIPm's analysis for LTE essential patent candidates, LG ranked 4th in IPR share for LTE baseband modem products. Essentiality analysis of the LG's LTE IPR also showed the highest quality of LG's LTE patent portfolio among IPR shareholders (ref. http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/08/lgs-lte-ipr-analysis-essential-patent.html).

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patent Landscape 2010 1Q

2010-03-07T04:13:00.004-05:00

LTE Patent Landscape 2010 1Q analyzes the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE (4G Mobile Communications) appear at the ETSI IPR Online website (some of Motorola's essential patent candidates are indentified by a keyword search). The declared essential patent candidates include published patent applications and issued patents in the United States (USPTO) before March 1, 2010 (patent applications in pending are not included). Total of 786 declared essential patent candidates are used in the analysis.

Analysis for the top LTE IPR shareholders shows that Qualcomm (250, 32%) is the leader followed by InterDigital (147, 19%), Nokia (94, 12%), LG (73, 9%), and Samsung (67, 9%) as of Feb. 28, 2010.

LTE digital baseband for 3GPP standard specifications consists of two core parts: OFDM/MIMO Modem (TS36.211+TS36.213) and Channel Coder (TS36.212). Analysis for the top IPR shareholders for LTE baseband modem products shows that Qualcomm (144, 33%) is the leader followed by Samsung (63, 15%), Nokia (46, 11%), LG (34, 8%), and Nortel (33, 8%) as of Feb. 28, 2010.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Nortel's LTE Patents Valuation

2010-03-05T10:44:00.003-05:00

Nortel's patent portfolio for LTE baseband products (OFDM/MIMO Modem and Channel Coder) in the lists of patents declared essential to LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online shows that there are 17 issued patents and 14 published patent applications in the United States as of January 31, 2010. Among LTE patent licensing contenders for the US LTE baseband product market, Nortel's IPR share was about 10 %.

To evaluate the essentiality of Nortel's LTE patents for OFDM/MIMO standards, patent disclosures for each essential patent candidate are compared to the technical specifications for LTE OFDM/MIMO standards. Only 11 out of 31 patents are evaluated as strong candidates for LTE essential patent.

Assuming a licensing share of 10% for $2 billion global end-user LTE device silicon market according to market research firm In-Stat and 10 years of licensing time, the value of the Nortel's LTE patent portfolio is roughly estimated to be about $0.4 billion for 2% royalty rate.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link MIMO Essential Patent (2)

2010-02-25T08:47:00.005-05:00

Patent application publication US20080279301, entitled Multiple antennas transmit diversity scheme, is a candidate for LTE DL MIMO essential patent.

BACKGROUND

The scheme of diversity is widely used to combat the effect of fast fading by providing a receiver with multiple faded replicas of the same information-bearing signal. The schemes of diversity in general fall into the following categories: space, angle, polarization, field, frequency, time and multipath diversity. Space diversity can be achieved by using multiple transmit or receive antennas. The spatial separation between the multiple antennas is chosen so that the diversity branches, i.e., the signals transmitted from the multiple antennas, experience fading with little or no correlation. Transmit diversity, which is one type of space diversity, uses multiple transmission antennas to provide the receiver with multiple uncorrelated replicas of the same signal. Transmission diversity schemes can further be divided into open loop transmit diversity and closed-loop transmission diversity schemes. In the open loop transmit diversity approach no feedback is required from the receiver.

In one type of closed loop transmit diversity, a receiver knows an arrangement of transmission antennas, computes a phase and amplitude adjustment that should be applied at the transmitter antennas in order to maximize a power of the signal received at the receiver. In another arrangement of closed loop transmit diversity referred to as selection transmit diversity (STD), the receiver provides feedback information to the transmitter regarding which antenna(s) to be used for transmission.

An example of open-loop transmission diversity scheme is the Alamouti 2.times.1 space-time diversity scheme. The Alamouti 2.times.1 space-time diversity scheme contemplates transmitting a Alamouti 2.times.2 block code using two transmission antennas using either two time slots (i.e., Space Time Block Code (STBC) transmit diversity) or two frequency subcarriers (i.e., Space Frequency Block Code (SFBC) transmit diversity). One limitation of Alamouti 2.times.1 space-time diversity scheme is that this scheme can only be applied to two transmission antennas. In order to transmit data using four transmission antennas, a Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD) or a Time Switched Transmit Diversity (TSTD) is combined with block codes.

PRIOR ART

In order to transmit data using four transmission antennas, a Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD) or a Time Switched Transmit Diversity (TSTD) is combined with block codes.

The problem with combined SFBC+FSTD scheme and STBC+TSTD schemes is that only a fraction of the total transmission antennas and hence power amplifier capability is used for transmission in a given frequency or time resource. This is indicated by `0` elements in the SFBC+FSTD and STBC+TSTD matrix. When the transmit power on the non-zero elements in the matrix is increased, bursty interference is generated to the neighboring cells degrading system performance. Generally, bursty interference manifests itself when certain phases of a frequency hopping pattern incur more interference than other phases.

In the downlink reference signals mapping for four transmission antennas in the 3GPP LTE, the density on antenna ports 2 and 3 is half the density on antenna ports 0 and 1. This leads to weaker channel estimates on antenna ports 2 and 3 relative to channel estimates on antenna ports 0 and in conventional SFBC+FSTD scheme.

INVENTION

Embodiments of this invention propose to exchange the second and the third row of the conventional SFBC-FSTD matrix, thus resulting in new SFBC. By this operation, symbols S.sub.1 and S.sub.2 are transmitted over antennas ports 0 and 2 while symbols S.sub.3 and S.sub.4 are transmitted over antenna ports 1 and 3. This is useful for evening out pilot-density disparity inherent in the reference signal structure of the LTE system.

CLAIM

21. A method for data transmission, the method comprising the steps of:modulating data to be transmitted into four modulated symbols;generating an output matrix, the output matrix being established by: [ y ( 0 ) ( 4 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 ) y ( 0 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 0 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 0 ) ( 4 + 3 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 + 3 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 + 3 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 + 3 ) ] = [ 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - j 0 ] [ Re ( S 1 ( ) ) Re ( S 2 ( ) ) Re ( S 3 ( ) ) Re ( S 4 ( ) ) Im ( S 1 ( ) ) Im ( S 2 ( ) ) Im ( S 3 ( ) ) Im ( S 4 ( ) ) ] where S.sub.1(i), S.sub.2(i), S.sub.3(i) and S.sub.4(i) are the four modulated symbols transmitted on the subcarriers 4i, 4i+1, 4i+2 and 4i+3; andtransmitting the symbols in the output matrix via four antennas on four frequency subcarriers, with y.sup.(n)(m) in the output matrix being transmitted via an (n+1)-th antenna and an (m+1)-th subcarrier:

DL MIMO specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.3.4.3 for precoding for transmit diversity

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link MIMO Essential Patent (1)

2010-02-25T04:54:00.004-05:00

Patent application publication US20070274411, entitled SIGNAL GENERATION USING PHASE-SHIFT BASED PRE-CODING, is a candidate for LTE DL MIMO essential patent.

BACKGROUND

Information communication services have become more popular and with the introduction of various multimedia services and high quality services, there is an increased demand for enhanced wireless (radio) communication services. In order to actively meet such demands, the capacity and data transmission reliability of the communication system should be increased. To increase communication capacity in a wireless (radio) communication environment, one method would be to find newly usable bandwidth and another would be to improve the efficiency of given resources. As some examples of the latter method, multiple antenna transmitting/receiving (transceiving) techniques are recently gaining attention and being actively developed, whereby a plurality of antennas are provided at the transceiver in order to obtain diversity gain by additionally securing spatial domain for resource utilization, or increasing transmission capacity by transmitting data in parallel via each antenna. Among such multiple antenna transceving techniques, an example would be Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).

PRIOR ART

Certain multi-carrier based wireless access techniques do not adequately support mobile communication systems with various types of antenna structures:

The space-time code (STC) technique, for a multiple antenna environment, relates to continuously (sequentially) transmitting the same signal, but in case of repetitive transmissions, transmitting through different antennas is performed, in order to obtain spatial diversity gain. Such space-time code technique has some shortcoming. For example, respectively different forms of space-time codes are required according to how the antenna structure changes, the transmitting side and receiving side have increased complexity because data symbols are repeatedly transmitted through a plurality of time slots in order to obtain spatial diversity, and has respectively lower performance compared to that of other closed-loop systems because data is transmitted without using feedback information.

Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) is a method in which frequency diversity gain is obtained at the receiving side, by using the antennas to respectively transmit signals with different delays or different magnitudes when transmitting OFDM signals in a system having multiple transceiving antennas. Upon separating and delivering the OFDM symbols to each antenna via a serial-to-parallel converter and a multiple antenna encoder, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) for changing a frequency domain signal into a time domain signal and a cyclic prefix (CP) for minimizing interference between channels are added and transmitted to the receiving side. Here, the data sequence delivered to the first antenna is transmitted to the receiving side as is (i.e., without any changes), while the data sequence transmitted from other transmit antennas is delayed in cyclic shift manner when compared to a first antenna. By using the phase-shift diversity method, the flat fading channel may be changed to a frequency selectivity channel, and frequency diversity gain or frequency scheduling gain may be obtained according to a cyclic delay sample. However, despite some benefits of the above-described cyclic delay diversity scheme or phase-shift diversity scheme, because the spatial multiplexing rate is 1, the data transmission rate cannot be increased as desired.

The pre-coding scheme may include a codebook based pre-coding method used when there is a finite (or limited) amount of feedback information in a closed-loop system and may include a method of performing feedback upon quantization of channel information. Here, codebook based pre-coding refers to obtaining signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain by feeding back, to the transmitting side, an index of a pre-coding matrix that is already known by both the transmitting side and the receiving side. Such codebook based pre-coding scheme is beneficial in that effective data transmission is possible due to feedback of the index. However, because a stable channel is necessary, such codebook based pre-coding may not be fully appropriate for a mobile environment with severe channel changes. Also, some loss in the uplink transmission rate may occur due to the feedback overhead for the preceding matrix index. Additionally, because a codebook is needed in both the transmitting side and the receiving side, increased memory usage may be required.

The present invention recognized certain shortcomings related to certain multi-carrier based multiple antenna transmitting and/or receiving techniques. Based upon such recognition, several new features have been conceived to address and/or to solve such issues.

INVENTION

A phase-shift based pre-coding scheme used in a transmitting side and a receiving side that has less complexity than those of a space-time coding scheme, that can support various spatial multiplexing rates while maintaining the advantages of the phase-shift diversity scheme, that has less channel sensitivity than that of the pre-coding scheme, and that only requires a low capacity codebook has been conceived and provided herein. In particular, the matrix used for performing phase-shift based pre-coding can be more easily expanded and implemented according to any changes in the number of antennas being employed.

CLAIM

14. An apparatus to perform downlink baseband signal generation for a multiple antenna system with multiple antenna ports, the apparatus comprising: a layer mapper that performs layer mapping of complex-valued modulation symbols for each code word to be transmitted; a precoder that performs a precoding procedure on a first set of complex-valued modulation symbols received from the layer mapper to generate a second set of complex-valued modulation symbols to be mapped onto resources related to the antenna ports; and a transmitter that performs signal transmission via the antenna ports based upon the second set of complex-valued modulation symbols generated by the precoder. :

DL MIMO specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.3 for general structure for downlink physical channels & Figure 6.3-1: Overview of physical channel processing.

26. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the preceding is performed according to y(i)=W(i)D(i)U(i).times.(i),where a pre-coding matrix W(i) has a size of P.times..upsilon., and D(i) is a diagonal matrix to support cyclic delay diversity, and a unitary matrix U(i) has a size of .upsilon..times..upsilon.. :

DL MIMO specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.3.4.2.2 for precoding for large delay CDD

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link MIMO Standard

2010-02-24T23:24:00.002-05:00

3GPP LTE standard TS36.211 specifies the down link MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) in section 6.3. The specification defines the DL MIMO in two types: transmit diversity and spatial multiplexing.

The characteristics of DL MIMO are as follows:

1. Precoding for transmit diversity adopted SFBC (Space Frequency Block Coding) for two antenna ports and balanced SFBC-FTSD (Frequency Shift Transmit Diversity) for four antenna ports.

2. Special multiplexing is used for improving the peak data rates, cell capacity and throughput.

3. Maximum number of cordwords is limited to two, and 1-2 mapping is used for three layers case and 2-2 mapping is used for four layers case (rf. Table 6.3.3.2-1: Codeword-to-layer mapping for special multiplexing).

4. A set of precoding matrices known at the UE and BeNodeB is constructed, and a codebook method is adopted to reduce the overhead in channel state information feedback (rf. 6.3.3.2.3 Codebook for precoding).

5. The precoding for special multiplexing is defined by the precoding matrix [W], which is selected among the precoder elements in the codebook.

6. Large-delay CDD (Cyclic Delay Diversity), defined by matrix [D][U] (rf. Table 6.3.4.2.2-1: Large-delay cyclic delay diversity), can be used compositely with precoding: [W][D][U].

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Synchronization Signals Essential Patent

2010-02-24T05:39:00.004-05:00

Patent application publication US2009010312, entitled METHOD OF PERFORMING CELL SEARCH IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, is a candidate for LTE DL SSs essential patent.

BACKGROUND

The cell search is the procedure by which a user equipment (UE) acquires time and frequency synchronization with a cell and detects the cell identity of the cell. The initial cell is determined according to a location of the UE at a time when the power is supplied. In general, the initial cell indicates a cell of a base station (BS) corresponding to the greatest one of signal components of all BSs, which are included in a downlink reception signal of the UE.

To facilitate the cell search, a wireless system uses a downlink channel including a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The PSS is used to allow the UE to acquire slot synchronization. The SSS is used to allow the UE to acquire frame synchronization and a scrambling code group.

In general, cell search is classified into initial cell search, which is initially performed when a UE is powered on, and non-initial search which performs handover or neighbor cell measurement.

PRIOR ART

Wide code division multiple access (WCDMA) systems of the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) use a total of 512 long pseudo-noise (PN) scrambling codes in order to identify BSs. As a scrambling code of a downlink channel, each BS uses a different long PN scrambling code. When power is supplied to a UE, the UE performs downlink synchronization of a cell and acquires a long PN scrambling code identifier (ID) of the cell. To facilitate the cell search, a WCDMA system divides 512 long PN scrambling codes into 64 code groups.

In the WCDMA system, the cell search is accomplished in three steps. In the first step, a UE acquires slot synchronization by using a PSS including a primary synchronization code (PSC). A frame includes 15 slots, and each BS transmits the frame by including a PSC. Herein, the same PSC is used for the 15 slots, and all BSs use the same PSC. The UE acquires the slot synchronization by using a matched filter suitable for the PSC. In the second step, a long PN scrambling code group and frame synchronization are acquired by using the slot synchronization and also by using a SSS including a secondary synchronization code (SSC). In the third step, by using a common pilot channel code correlator on the basis of the frame synchronization and the long PN scrambling code group, the UE detects a long PN scrambling code ID corresponding to a long PN scrambling code used by the initial cell. That is, since 8 long PN scrambling codes are mapped to one long PN scrambling code group, the UE computes correlation values of all of the 8 long PN scrambling codes belonging to a code group of the UE. On the basis of the computation result, the UE detects the long PN scrambling code ID of the initial cell.

If errors occur while detecting the SSS, delay occurs when a UE performs cell search. Therefore, there is a need to improve channel detection performance in the cell search procedure.

INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide a method of performing cell search in a wireless communication system. A method is sought for improving detection performance by performing scrambling in such a manner that different scrambling codes are used for a secondary synchronization signal. A method is also sought for performing a reliable cell search by improving detection performance on the secondary synchronization signal.

The method includes acquiring an unique identity from the PSS, receiving SSS which is associated with a cell identity group, the SSS comprising two secondary synchronization codes (SSCs) and acquiring a cell identity which is defined by the unique identity within the cell identity group, wherein the two SSCs are respectively scrambled by using two different scrambling codes, the two SSCs are defined by m-sequences.

CLAIM

1. A method of performing cell search in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving a primary synchronization signal (PSS) comprising a primary synchronization code (PSC); acquiring an unique identity from the PSS; receiving a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) which is associated with a cell identity group, the SSS comprising two secondary synchronization codes (SSCs); an acquiring a cell identity which is defined by the unique identity within the cell identity group, wherein the two SSCs are respectively scrambled by using two different scrambling codes, the two SSCs are defined by m-sequences generated by a generating polynomial x.sup.5+x.sup.2+1, and the two scrambling codes are defined by m-sequences generated by a generating polynomial x.sup.5+x.sup.3+1:

DL SSs specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.11.2.1 for SSS sequence generation

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Synchronization Signals Standard

2010-02-23T15:18:00.006-05:00

3GPP LTE standard TS36.211 specifies the down link synchronization signals (DL SSs) in section 6.11. The specification defines the DL SSs in two types: primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS). DL SSs are needed to acquire frequency and time synchronization to a cell and determine the physical layer identity of the cell.

The structure and characteristics of the PSS and SSS are as follows:

1. PSS and SSS are transmitted in the central 6 RBs for all possible system bandwidth (6 - 110 RBs): PSS and SSS are each mapped to the central 62 subcarriers around the unused D.C. subcarrier.

2. DL SSs are transmitted twice per 10 ms radio frame (the two PSSs within a radio frame are identical in a given cell). For the FDD case, the PSS is located in the last symbol of the first slot of subframe of 0 and 5 and the SSS is located just prior to the PSS. For the TDD case, the PSS is located in the third symbol of subframe 1 and 6 and the SSS is located three symbols ahead of the PSS.

3. Three different PSS sequences are used for the cell identity in the group.

4. Three (root = 25, 29, 34) Zadoff-Chu sequences of length 63 (ZC(31) is not used for the D.C. subcarrier) are used for PSS.

5. Length 62 sequences of SSS are an interleaved concatenation of two length 31 BPSK-modulated binary codes (SSC1 and SSC2). The concatenated sequence (m-sequence) is scrambled with a scrambling sequence given by the PSS. The possible combination of SSC1 and SSC2 are 168, representing the physical layer cell identity group.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Reference Signals Essential Patent (1)

2010-02-22T09:38:00.007-05:00

Patent application publication US20060285484,entitled Pilot Design and Channel Estimation, is a candidate for LTE DL RSs essential patent.

BACKGROUND

In an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) based communication system, pilot symbols are transmitted in addition to data symbols to provide a reference for the receiver to estimate the channel medium and accordingly demodulate the received signal. OFDM systems periodically insert reference (or pilot) symbols that are known a priori, into the transmission signal. The receiver can thus estimate the channel response based on the received pilot symbols and the known transmitted pilot symbols. A pilot signal also referred to as reference signal is composed of the pilot symbols.

The DL pilot signal should provide effective performance for the following functions: Channel estimation at all possible operating carrier frequencies for all physical channels for all channel multi-path delay spreads (frequency selectivity) encountered in practice and for all UE speeds of interest; CQI measurement for link adaptation and channel-dependent scheduling; Sector identification of sector within the same cell; Measurements for cell search and handover.

PRIOR ART

Channel estimation is based on time and frequency interpolation among pilot sub-carriers in order to obtain the channel estimates at the position corresponding to data sub-carriers. In order to be able to perform frequency interpolation, the pilot sub-carrier spacing in the frequency domain should be smaller than the 50% correlation coherence bandwidth of the channel for all channels of interest. Similarly, in order to be able to perform time interpolation, the pilot sub-carrier spacing in the time domain should be smaller than the 50% coherence time of the channel at the operating carrier frequency for all UE speeds of interest.

There is a need for an improved pilot structure design in the prior arts in order to achieve accurate channel estimates for high user equipment (UE) speeds in mobile operations while also achieve the ability to use substantial pilot energy from succeeding TTI (Transmission Time Interval) with minimum latency.

INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide method and apparatus for generating a structure in a OFDM communication system having a transmitter with a least one transmitting antenna to achieve accurate channel estimates for high UE speeds and high channel frequency selectivity in mobile operations.

CLAIM

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmission time interval comprises of seven orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols and wherein the pilot signal from at least one transmitting antenna is located in the first and fifth OFDM symbols of a transmission time interval:

DL RSs specification for single antenna port in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.10.12 & Figs 6.101.2-1

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transmitter has at least two antennas, said method further comprising: locating a pilot signal from a second antenna into two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of said frame such that the pilot power of the pilot signal from the second antenna is in the first and fifth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of the transmission time interval:

DL RSs specification for two antenna ports in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.10.12 & Figs 6.101.2-1

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the transmitter has at least four antennas, said method further comprising: locating a pilot signal from a third antenna into two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of said frame such that the pilot power of the pilot signal from the third antenna is in the second and sixth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of the transmission time interval; and locating a pilot signal from a fourth antenna into two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of said frame such that the pilot power of the pilot signal from the fourth antenna is in the second and sixth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of the transmission time interval:

DL RSs specification for four antenna ports in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.10.12 & Figs 6.101.2-1

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Reference Signals Standard (1)

2010-02-21T04:47:00.009-05:00

3GPP LTE standard TS36.211 specifies the down link reference signals (DL RSs) in section 6.10. The specification defines the DL RSs in three types: Cell-specific reference signals, UE-specific reference signals, and MBSFN reference signals. DL RSs are needed to carry out coherent demodulation at UE through DL channel estimation.

The cell-specific RSs are available to all UEs in a cell and span the entire cell bandwidth. The structure and characteristics of the cell-specific RSs are as follows:

1. The OFDM symbols form a two-dimensional sequence (corresponds to one of 504 difference cell identities, NID_cell) and are arranged in a 'diamond shape' lattice structure to achieve the minimum interpolation errors for the channel estimation.

2. Considering the case of high channel frequency selectivity and high UE velocity, there are four reference symbols per RB (Resource Block) for optimal channel estimation.

3. There are six frequency shifts of the reference symbols corresponds to 84 different cell identities (the reference symbols are inserted within the first and the third from the last OFDM symbol for a given slot of RBs and staggered by three subcarriers relative to each other).

4. For the case of four antenna ports, the reference symbols of the second antenna port are shifted by three subcarriers with respect to the reference symbols of the first antenna port in each OFDM symbols. The reference symbols for the third and fourth antenna ports are located within the second OFDM symbols of each slot (two reference symbols per RB) to reduce the overhead in multiple channel estimations.

5. DL RSs are generated using QPSK modulation for low PAPR (Peak-to Average Power Ratio).

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

3D Industry Supporting Center in S. Korea

2010-01-22T04:45:00.004-05:00

Korea Electronics Association (KEA) recently announced the establishment of the supporting center for 3D industry in S. Korea. As the James Cameron's Avatar Movie triggered the worldwide interested in 3D multimedia entertainment, global consumer electronics giants, Samsung, Sony, and LG, expressed their introduction of 3D TV and intension of aggressive investment in R&D for 3D related technologies. KEA’s 3D Industry Supporting Center aimed at the promotion of 3D industry in S. Korea in parallel with the global trends in 3D consumer electronics market.

The 3D center is expected to play a key role in the development of innovative 3D technologies, global standardization of 3D technologies, and operation of a collaborative body for intellectual property related issues.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

4G Mobile IPTV Services in S. Korea

2010-01-21T06:55:00.004-05:00

According to the Wikipedia, mobile IPTV is a technology that enables users to transmit and receive multimedia traffic including television signal, video, audio, text and graphic services through IP-based the wired and wireless networks. Through Mobile IPTV, users can enjoy TV services anywhere and even while on the move.

Korea Communications Commission (KCC) recently announced that mobile IPTV services based on mobile WiMAX will be provided at the G20 Seoul Summit in November. The world’s first mobile IPTV services had already been demonstrated in the last year’s ASEAN-Korea Summit hold in Jeju Island.

KT, S. Korea’s major MNO, is now planning the commercial mobile IPTV services using the 4G iPhone as a part of its fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Strategic Promotion of Invention Capital in S. Korea

2010-01-19T22:56:00.003-05:00

Korea Institute of Advancement of Technology (KIAT) recently announced the RFP for the strategic promotion of the first invention capital in S. Korea. The invention capital was first proposed by Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) last year following the model of IV (Intellectual Ventures). Base on $ 5 M seed funding from Korean government, the invention capital is going to raise the fund at the level of $0.5 B in 5 years.

Currently, KITA is playing a role as the IP management organization for the invention capital, and is operating Twitter site ‘ip_capital' (twitter.com/ip_capital) for the promotion of the invention capital.

Commercialization as Dominant Design Strategy

2010-01-16T06:19:00.007-05:00

Dominant Design is the key technological designs that become a standard in the market place. Commercialization as Dominant Design Strategy is a strategic way to make your innovative technology as a dominant design by forming a business ecosystem:

S. Korea is the best place for testing commercial potentials of newly developed innovative technologies in IT and Telecom. Once a new technology is successful in S. Korea’s testing market, it could become a global dominant design such as in the case of Qualcomm’s CDMA technology. TechIPm, LLC provides the strategy and business development consulting services by launching your technology prototype in S. Korea’s testing market based on more than 10 years business experiences in S. Korea.

Examples for IT & Telecom teating market projects in S. Korea:

New Mobile WiMAX Services in S. Koreahttp://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-mobile-wimax-services-in-s-korea.html

Future Network 2020: S. Korea’s Strategy for Global Innovation Hub in ICThttp://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/12/future-network-2020-s-koreas-strategy.html

Songdo u-City: Global IT Innovation Hubhttp://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/12/songdo-u-city-global-it-innovation-hub.html

M2M: S. Korean Telco’s New Strategic Optionshttp://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/12/m2m-s-korean-telcos-new-strategic.html

4G Smart Phone Innovation Cluster in S. Koreahttp://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2010/01/4g-smart-phone-innovation-cluster-in-s.html

Mobile Cloud Computing Test-Bed & Standardization in S. Koreahttp://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2010/01/4g-smart-phone-innovation-cluster-in-s.html

If you want to develop a new IT & Telecom business in S. Korea, please contact Dr. Alex G. Lee at alexglee@techipm.com

Mobile Cloud Computing Test-Bed & Standardization in S. Korea

2010-01-16T00:19:00.005-05:00

Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and ministry of knowledge economy (MKE) jointly announced the initiation of mobile computing test-bed. The mobile computing test-bed is a part of the government project planning, ‘Cloud Computing Global Leadership,’ to invest about 0.5 B$ until 2014.

The mobile cloud computing test-bead is one of 8 cloud computing test-bed project and will be operated by public-private partnerships. The five-year government cloud computing project also includes the establishment of cloud computing data center for government agencies.

In parallel with the cloud computing promotion initiation, TTA, which is the main standardization body in S. Korea, is going to push the cloud computing standardization through global standardization bodies.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patents Essentiality Analysis

2010-01-15T10:59:00.005-05:00

Recently, Fairfield Resources International, Inc. (http://www.www.frlicense.com/) published interesting research for the essentiality analysis of LTE patents, which is very similar to the TechIPm, LLC’s research ‘LTE IPR Analysis Essentiality for OFDM/MIMO Standards 3Q. 2009’ (http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lteiprofdmmimo20093q).

Both research used the LTE patents declared to essential in ETSI online site. The difference was the selection of data set and scope: In TechIPm’s research, both the US issued patents and published applications are used while Fairfield Resources International used only the patents issued globally (US, EU, China, Korea, PCT). TechIPm’s analysis focused only on the OFDM/MIMO air interface standards for more extended data set compare to the whole scope of technology in the consideration of Fairfield Resources International’s analysis.

Because of the differences in each research's anlaysis, it is difficult to compare each other’s analysis results directly. However, both research found that it is no higher than 50% of chance to be essential for most IPR holder’s declared LTE essential patent candidates.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Qualcomm’s Mobile R&D Center in S. Korea

2010-01-14T12:40:00.005-05:00

In recent media interview, Qualcomm’s CEO, Dr. Paul E. Jacobs expressed the planning of the second R&D center in S. Korea. Jacobs told that the details about the R&D center will be reviled when he is going to visit S. Korea in early February.

Jacobs expected the dramatic increase in mobile computing market based on 4G networks and smart phones in near future. He also expected that the strategic collaborations with S. Korean Mobile industry could make Qualcomm as the global leader in emerging mobile computing market.

Qualcomm is going to invest to S. Korean technology ventures and to expend business partnership with S. Korea’s mobile phone manufactures.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

4G Smart Phone Innovation Cluster in S. Korea

2010-01-14T01:08:00.004-05:00

Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE: http://www.mke.go.kr/) announced the planning of mobile phone cluster formation for global leadership in 4G mobile phone innovations. According to MKE, about 200 M $ will be invested to the public-private collaboration project for the construction of 4G mobile phone innovation ecosystem.

All the stakeholders for mobile phones will be located in the cluster for a complete collaborative environment from R&D to production and field tests to keep the S. Korea’s leadership in rapidly changing global mobile phone market. Global mobile phone manufactures such as Samsung and LG and major S. Korea’s Telco such as KT and SKT expressed their participation in the mobile phone innovation cluster.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

4G Smart Phone Chip Innovation Frontiers: CPU’s Speed & Security

2010-01-12T06:40:00.003-05:00

IEEE Spectrum's special report recently selected the Intrinsity’s processor chip for smart phones, dubbed Hummingbird, as the year 2010’s winner for technology innovations (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/winner-intrinsitys-more-cerebral-cortex/2).

Intrinsity’s Hummingbird is a fast CPU, jointly developed with Samsung, based on ARM’s Cortex A8 architecture and Samsung’s 45nm LP (Low Power) process to provide a clock speed of 1GHz at a minimum supply voltage of 1V.

As the deployment of the 4G mobile services and a huge user demand for smart phones, it is expected that the mobile CPU which can provide a PC like performance will be the most competitive innovation frontiers in 2010.

In addition to the 4G mobile CPU’s speed, security will be the wildcard for the successful mass deployment of 4G smart phones.

Discretix's CryptoCell system is one of the state of art technology to provide the embedded security features for smart phones. CryptoCell includes a hardware core layer that can be implemented on the underlying modem chipset and middleware elements that create secure access to the hardware. It also includes the application-layer toolkits and APIs to support applications such as secure digital rights management, mobile TV security, IPSec etc.

Discretix's CryptoCell system is going to implemented in LG’s future LTE phones.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

4G & Smart Phone: Innovation Frontiers in 2010

2010-01-09T05:20:00.003-05:00

LG Electronics demonstrated the one of the world’s first LTE download speed of 100Mbps at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2010. By connecting to the LG’s LTE USB Modem, LG presented the real-time demonstrations of full HD video files, video conferences and web-surfing at speeds up to 100Mbps for downloads and 50Mbps for uploads.

LG’s innovative breakthrough in LTE technology makes a very optimistic expectation for the future 4G mobile market, especially for smart phones, possible.

In recent article ‘4G in the U.S.A.’ (http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/standards/4g-in-the-usa

), IEEE expects the wide spreading of Mobile WiMax is in the United States. It also predicts the rising of LTE as a strong contender to the Mobile WiMAX, expressed as ‘WiMAX could soon be overshadowed by a rival technology’.

Fixed-Mobile Broadband Convergence: S. Korea’s 4G Migration Strategy

2010-01-07T00:45:00.004-05:00

Following the recent shift in mobile application market from voice to data, S. Korea’s major telecom operators are changing their business platforms:

KT (Korea Telecom), which is the largest fixed telecom operator, is merged with mobile telecom operator KTF to form a new KT to get a competitive edge in the emerging fixed-mobile broadband convergence market. KT’s recent aggressive making for smart phones (Samsung’s Omnia and Apple’s iPhone) is one example of the new KT’s business strategy utilizing the new integrated networks.

As of Jan. 1 2010, LT Telecom, which is one of the major mobile telecom operators along with KT and SKT, launched a new fixed-mobile broadband convergence network operator by merging with two other LG group’s fixed line operators – LG DACOM and LG POWERCOM. In recent media interview, the new LGT’s CEO Sang-chul Lee expressed that LGT will be the first 4G broadband mobile service provider based on LTE as soon as the Korean Communication Commission’s 4G spectrum allocation (700 MHz, 800 MHz, 2.1 GHz) policy is decided.

©2010 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

M2M: S. Korean Telco’s New Strategic Options

2009-12-23T07:38:00.004-05:00

S. Korea’s major telecom service providers – SKT and KT – selected M2M as a new strategic business option for the next generation profit center:

SK Telecom formed a new business division, ‘IPE (Industry Productivity Enhancement)’ center, for the development of new M2M innovative technologies and providing M2M based B2B services. SKT aims $20 B market creation based on M2M services for conventional industry’s productivity enhancement.

S. Korea’s largest Telco, KT, also plan to provide M2M based B2B services using 3G mobile and Mobile WiMAX networks. The KT's M2M services are also targeting several newly developing green businesses such as smart grids and environment monitoring services.

In parallel with the private sector’s efforts, Korean government (KCC: Korean Communication Commission) are going to launch several trial projects by providing M2M test-bed platform for public-private collaborations. KCC also plan to assign a unique IP address for each individual M2M devices to form a ‘network of things’.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Songdo u-City: Global IT Innovation Hub

2009-12-23T05:20:00.002-05:00

Songdo u-City is a new city in Incheon, S. Korea for creating innovative living environment for international business (NY Times: Korea's High-Tech Utopia, Where Everything Is Observed: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/technology/techspecial/05oconnell.html?_r=2&ei=5070&en=f49e6ccfdeea3832&ex=1137128400&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1136955721-1KkHc2eYEqMOALzXR5JEfw)

Recently the Songdo u-City got a media attention due to its hosting of new global IT innovation centers:

Cisco is going to invest $2 billion dollars over the next five years starting from 2010 for the development of ‘Smart Connected Communities solutions’ for the u-City.

GE plans to establish a global IT-health R & D center in Songdo u-City. GE will invest $42 million for the next five years for the development of state-of-the-art healthcare IT solutions.

Future Network 2020: S. Korea’s Strategy for Global Innovation Hub in ICT

2009-12-18T10:47:00.002-05:00

Korea’s main institutes for ICT (Information & Communication Technology) R&D and policy - Electronics & Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and National Information Society Agency (NIA) recently opened the 'future network 2020 forum (FN 2020)’ for the promotion of S. Korea’s global leadership in future ICT innovations.

The FN 2020 forum will provide visionary strategy and supporting government policy for the development of innovative network infrastructure and related service models for the future information society: 4G and beyond 4G mobile network technologies, standardization in fixed-mobile convergence networks, policy and technologies for secure network environment, open network architecture for network neutrality implementation, and testing platform for the new service models development in emerging ICT markets.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

Obama's Broadband Stimulus Initiative: S. Korea's Experiences for Reference Strategy

2009-12-14T04:06:00.010-05:00

The Promise of Broadband Wireless Communities

“This book, a collaborative effort of the United Nations ICT Task Force and the Wireless Internet Institute (W2i), is intended as a resource and toolkit for local authorities seeking to plan, fund and deploy broadband-wireless networks in their communities. It also aims to raise awareness of the immense potential of wireless technologies in meeting the real needs of the poor. Indeed, the exponential growth in new technologies continues to offer vast opportunities. I look forward to working with all concerned to build an information society that benefits and empowers all the world’s people.”

—From the Foreword by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

• Co-published by: The United Nations ICT Task Force and the Wireless Internet Institute.
• Edited by: The Wireless Internet Institute.

• Pages: 134

• ISBN: 0-9747607-3-0

• First printed: October 2005

National Government as an Incubator for Broadband Distribution in South Korea

by GeunHo Lee (S. Fellow, u-City Forum)

South Korea is the world's most wired nation. There are 12 M high speed internet subscribers and 37 M mobile phone subscribers out of 48 M total population. Many households have broadband internet connections at the speeds of 10 Mbps or higher.

Koran government deserves receiving most of the credit for this success. Since the first master plan for informatization promotion has been established in 1996, the government worked closely with telecom operators on providing the communication infrastructure (155 Mbps ~ 5 Gbps) that connects 144 main cities in 2000 to deliver broadband services to the citizens. After the government announced that CDMA would be the standard for mobile services, SKT which is one of three major mobile telecom operators launched the world first commercial CDMA service in January 1996. Since then, Korea became a country with one of the world's highest mobile phone penetration rates.

The Korean government’s continuing deregulatory telecommunication policy facilitated the rapid penetration of broadband internet service in Korea. The Korean government provided an environment for broadband growth by privatizing Korea Telecom and encouraging competition between different telecom operators. This lowers the service prices while delivering high quality internet services. Even rural areas could have broadband connections. Government also significantly invested to R&D of key technologies such as TDX exchange systems during mid 80’s.

In addition to government’s active policy support and investment, there are some aspects of Korean society which make the most wired country possible. Between 1998 and 2002, over 25,000 PC Roms emerged, providing the enefits of broadband to young adults; the place to play and enjoy gaming and multimedia with friends. Players want to upgrade the speed of their broadband connection to ensure the best level of play. Strong collaboration relationship between the public and private sector was also one of the key success factors.

Following the second master plane for informatization promotion -“e-Korea vision”- in 2002, the Korean government announced the third master plan for the broadband IT Korea -“u-Korea vision” - in 2004.

The u-Korea vision is looking for the next stage digital revolution -ubiquitous computing and communications era- that people can communicate and access information anywhere, anytime and anydevice. To support the u-Korea vision, Korean government launched a new national ICT strategy -IT839 initiative- outlining ambitious goals for eight services, three infrastructures and nine technologies. Under the IT839 initiative, the government encourages private sector’s investment and participation.

Highlight in IT839 strategy is the establishment of broadband convergence network (BcN) infracture and the deployment of wireless broadband Internet (Wibro) service using the 2.3GHz frequency band and based on the same standard proposed for WiMax.BcN is the government`s most notable attempt to create an enhanced digital environment to keep pace with the new trends of media convergence. BcN will provide high speed connections at speeds of 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps for voice, data and video on a single platform. By successfully integrating the broadband convergence network with advanced end-user applications, Korea will be at least five years ahead of other developed countries in ICT based services.

WiBro service is for broadband internet connections with mobility. It is jointly developed by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and Samsung Electronics. WiBro allows users to work with a word processor or watch a movie while trucking along at near-highway speeds. WiBro promises much higher data rates than one can get from the third-generation (3G) cellular system -an initial rate of 1 to 3 megabits per second, versus the 384 kilobits per second typical in advanced mobile phone networks today. The Korean government has already set regulatory guidelines for commercial WiBro services, and the telecom giant KT and SKT will be in full deployment of the service by mid-2006.

With the succeful launch of the BcN and WiBro, South Korea will be the most digitally dynamic society triggering drastic changes in a wide spectrum of social and economic activities.

The Digital-city Nation: South Korea’s “u-City”
by GeunHo Lee (S. Fellow, u-City Forum)

u-City (ubiquitous ICT city) is the "Korea's 21C ICT mediated City", in which advanced ICT infrastructure and ubiquitous information services are integrated into the city space providing high convenience and quality for everyday city life, highly secured and well managed city environment, and creation of new business.

The u-City is a Korean version of new city development found in such diverse places around the world as Boston, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Singapore, and Malaysia in which information and communications technologies are woven into the design of the cities.

The main objective of Korea’s u-City is to create environments in cities where residents can enjoy access to high-speed networks and advanced information services regardless of location and time, leveraging Korea’s experience in most advanced ICT deployment.

The matured information and communication industry sector is already seeing the trend of slow growth. The u-City project will become the center of the government and private sectors' effort in sustaining growth for the country's economy: it is creating ICT converged construction industries and securing the growth phase of ICT industry by maximizing the synergy effect between the world top level ICT infrastructure and the most active city construction industry in Korea.

Local governments have been laying out several u-Citys such as Seoul’s Digital Media City and Incheon's New Songdo City projects. Industry insiders believe that successful launch of the u-City could only be possible by linking the regional projects for balanced development, avoiding overlapping investment, while solving the economical, technical and legislative barriers through interaction between the government and private sectors.

Recently, the u-City Forum is established for concentrating the full effort of allied industry, government and civil experts for the development of u-City application services, related technology, and research for related regulations. The major members of the forum are central & local government including MIC, MCT, Incheon, Busan, Kyonggi, city developers such as the Korea Land Corp. and Korea Housing Corp., and high-tech heavyweights such as KT, SKT, Samsung and LG.

Following figure shows the u-City projects under development.

57,000 sq km and total population of 30 K digital media model town - Digital Media City (DMC) - in the Sangam region of Seoul will be complete by 2010. DMC will play a vital role in leading the future of Seoul. DMC will be a place where new added values are continually created by combining the attributes of digital media technology and culture. DMC will serve as an outpost supplying cultural products and services to satisfy local demands by utilizing advanced technologies, thereby becoming the ultimate breeding ground of technological innovation.

209,000 sq km and total population of 200 K ubiquitous computing model town in the Songdo district will be completed by 2014. As the largest urban development in Korea, New Songdo City Development, LLC (NSC), a joint venture between U.S. based The Gale Company and Korea's POSCO E&C signed an MOU with LG CNS, one of major ICT system integrator to establish "Songdo u-Life, LLC," a joint venture which will play a key role in constructing a u-City.

The scope of the Songdo u-City project will be approximately $1 B to construct and manage a ubiquitous computing and communication infrastructure in the new city's households, schools, hospitals, and government offices, improving quality of life for residents and providing a highly-advanced digital environment for tenant companies.Songdo u-Life, LLC will create a consortium among ICT companies to build a profit-generating business models including advanced digital services such as intelligent transport system (ITS), intelligent building system (IBS), home networks and smart card systems.

2,146 sq km and total population of 30 K digital model town in the Heungdeok district will be complete by 2008. The digital model town is one where the road system is connected with communication systems, and where all aspects of city life are managed by a central IT system. Residents can control electronic appliances while driving their cars and can check the traffic situation from their homes using FTTH fiber optic networks.

Busan, the nation's largest port city, will emerge as the world's first city with a ubiquitous wireless network over the next 5 years. To launch the $1 B mega project, mayor of Busan and president of KT president signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for public-private partnership. The city government is pushing forward a plan to make the city as a logistics hub of Northeast Asia by building a "u-Port" in Busan harbor. The u-Port will use the ubiquitous technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) to provide cargo information in real time. It also plans a "u-Convention" facility to provide users access to tourism and geography information as well as translation services and electronic bill payment. “u-Healthcare” and “u-Traffic” service will also be provided as the main contents of the Busan u-City. The city is trying to invite as much private capital, from home and abroad, as possible.

SK Telecom began working on a Telematics Model City in Cheju Island in 2004. Joint investment of $10 M among central government (40%), local government (30%), and private sector (30%), Cheju u-City is to build a telematics service system for providing tourism and traffic information over 3000 renter cars in the Island.

Following figure shows the most common network and service schematics for Korea’s u-City projects.

Korean government announced the “u-Korea vision” in 2004 looking for the next stage digital revolution -ubiquitous computing and communications era- that people can communicate and access information anywhere anytime and anydevice. To support the u-Korea vision, Korean government launched a new national ICT strategy -IT839 initiative- outlining ambitious goals for eight services, three infrastructures and nine technologies. Fostering the realization of IT839 strategy in the u-City projects, u-Korea vision would be reached as early as possible.

New Mobile WiMAX Services in S. Korea

2009-12-13T05:37:00.006-05:00

According to the KCC (Korea Communications Commission), there will be a new mobile WiMAX (Korean brand name WIBRO) service provider in addition to the current operators, KT and SK Telecom. The new mobile WiMAX operator will be about 1B US$ initial capital MNO consortium consisting of MVNO shareholders. KCC is planning a new frequency allocation (2.3 GHz or 2.5 GHz with 10 MHz bandwidth) in early 2010 for the start of nation-wide full commercial services in 2011.

The new All-IP based mobile WiMAX network is expected to provide the voice (mVoIP) as well as the broadband data services in a truly fixed-mobile and voice-data convergence environment for each MVNO’s customized services such as m-learning, m-logistics, and m-healthcare etc.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Essential Patent Policy: China's New Regulation

2009-12-02T05:24:00.006-05:00

According to the TalkStandard (http://www.talkstandards.com/), China recently announced a new regulation policy for IPRs in China's nation standards.

Draft for the regulation, whose deadline for the submitting comments was November 30, includes several interesting proposals:

1. Relevant IPRs involved in the China's national standardization process should be disclosed by IPR holders.

2. IPRs that are disclosed should available at royalty fees that are considerably lower than FRAND.

3. IPRs that are not disclosed are considered to be royalty free.

4. IPR holders who concealing IPR information shall bear legal liabilities.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Essential Patent Supporting Center: A New South Korea's National Initiative

2009-11-21T02:12:00.007-05:00

Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) established the "Essential Patent Supporting Center" as a part of an official organization for Korea Institute of Patent Information (KIPI). The main role of the center is to support Korean industry for developing IPRs for standardized technologies, especially in IT and Telecommunications.

KIPO announced that the "Essential Patent Supporting Center" will be operated as a public-private collaboration and will provide essential patent information and expert consulting for promotion of Korean industries' global leadership in IPRs for standardized technologies.

http://www.techipm.com/

4G (LTE, WiMAX) Technology & IPR

2009-11-18T17:53:00.005-05:00

Alex G. Lee, Ph.D. (Principal, TechIPm, LLC)

Trends & Issues with Strategic Patent Management for Mobile Communication Technologies:

1. Mobile Revolution Began with Patent

2. Patents at the Heart of Mobile Business: Qualcomm’s Profit Center

3. Beginning of 4 th Generation Mobile

4. Complex IPR Landscape 4.1 LTE IPR Landscape 4.2 Mobile WiMAX IPR Landscape

5. IPR Strategy: Strategic Alignment 5.1 IPR-Standardization Alignment Best Practice: LTE Case Study

6. Strategic Management of Patent Portfolio

7. Patent Portfolio Management: Mobile Telecom Case Study

8. Patent Portfolio Management: LTE Case Study (1)

9. Patent Portfolio Management: LTE Case Study (2)

10. Licensing Issues: Pool or Bilateral

11. NPE Issues: Evolution of IP business? 11.1 NPEs in Mobile Telecom 11.2 Pro or Con for the NPEs

Appendix. 4G IPR References

Hyeonwoo Lee, Ph.D. (Next G Mobile Program Director, Ministry of Knowledge Economy)

Roadmap and R&D Support in Mobile Communication:

1. Mobile Comm.Industry

2. Mobile Comm. R&D Roadmap

3. R&D Investment & IPR Status

4. R&D Support Policy

5. R&D Direction in Mobile Comm.

Junwon Lee (IPR Director, Samsung Electronics)

4G & Patent Portfolio:

1. Evolution to 4G

2. Standardization & IPR Portfolio for 4G

3. 4G & Patent Pools

Jari Varrio, Ph.D. (IPR Director, Nokia)

Patent portfolio creates value in many ways:

1.Multipurpose Devices

2. Innovations at Mobile Devices

3. Nokia IPR Assets

4. Innovations through Standards Collaboration

NPEs (Patent Trolls) in Mobile Telecommunications

2009-11-11T09:15:00.006-05:00

NPE (non-practicing entity) is a patent owner who does not manufacture or use the patented invention, but rather than abandoning the right to exclude, an NPE seeks to enforce its right through the negotiation of licenses and litigation.

IPRs and litigations involved by NPEs in mobile telecommunications are analized for US issued patents using Innography.

As of Oct. 30 2009, NPEs hold 907 patent families (4% of total patents) and are involved in 129 lawsuits (13% of total patent litigations).

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Patent Litigation Risk Management: Mobile Telecommunications Case Study

2009-11-05T09:55:00.011-05:00

Litigation risk management is one of key factors in strategic patent portfolio development. As a case study for a capability measure for litigation risk managemnt, litigation per patent is estimated for the US IPR holders in mobile telecommunications.

As of Oct. 15 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for mobile telecom were as follows:

Ericsson (3923), Nokia (3376), Motorola (3364), Samsung (2148), NEC (2061), Alcatel-Lucent (2013), Qualcomm (1997), MS (1884), Matsushita (1573), and IBM (1544).

For each IPR holders, patent lication cases are counted using Innography for the measure of the litigation per patent. The results were as follows:

Ericsson (0.01), Nokia (0.02), Motorola (0.05), Samsung (0.09), NEC (0.04), Alcatel-Lucent (0.06), Qualcomm (0.03), MS (0.11), Matsushita (0.07), and IBM (0.07).

http://www.techipm.com/

4G (LTE, WiMAX) IPR Strategy Seminar & Panel Discussion

2009-10-28T04:28:00.008-04:00

As a part of PATINEX 2009, which is scheduled on Nov. 10-11 in Seoul, S. Korea, there will be a special session on Mobile technology IPR development and portfolio management especially for 4G. After short presentations by each panel, there will be an in-depth discussion about current status of 4G (LTE, Mobile WiMAX) essential patent IPRs, strategic patent portfolio development and management, and issue with licensing (patent pool) and NPEs.

Moderator : Alex G. Lee, Ph.D. (Principal, TechIPm, LLC)
Panels:
Jari Varrio, Ph.D. (IPR Director, Nokia)
James Maccoun, J.D. (Sr. Counsel, HP and former IPR Director, Motorola)
Junwon Lee (IPR Director, Samsung Electronics)
Hyeonwoo Lee, Ph.D. (NextG Mobile Program Director, Ministry of Knowledge Economy)

Panel Discussion Agenda

1. Recent trends in IPR for mobile telecommunication innovations. Are there any unique IPR characteristics in mobile telecommunication sector compare to others?

2. IPR landscape in 4G compare to 3G and 2G. What is the difference in IPR regime for LTE and Mobile WiMAX?

3. IPR for “essential patent” vs. “non-essential patent”. What is the difference in strategy?

4. Quantity or Quality. Which factor is important in patent portfolio development?

5. Best practice in strategic alignment: global IPR leaders’ experience.

6. Profit from IPR investment. How to measure the ROI?

7. Can a patent pool possible for 4G mobile? Licensing trends in mobile telecommunications compare to other IT areas. What likely be the royalty rates and is an expected role of patent pool for lowering the royalties? What is the global IPR leaders’ licensing policy and strategy?

8. Are there any IPR related matters in global trade?

9. Are there any threats from NPEs (patent trolls) in 4G? Pros and cons of NPEs in knowledge base economy. Will the harmonization and/or any kind of collaboration in patent law reform be necessary and/or effective for NPE issues?

Free Registration: http://www.patinex.org/RI/RI01E_n.jsp

Global Zigbee Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-24T16:40:00.002-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.3) technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 20 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for Zigbee are as follows:

Samsung (123), Philips (70), Broadcom (50), Motorola (40), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (35), Eaton (20), and ETRI (19).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the Zigbee, Samsung and Philips form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global Biometrics Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-24T05:18:00.002-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for Biometrics technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 20 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for Biometrics are as follows:

IBM (328), Fujitsu (267), Philips (194), Precise Biometrics (175), MS (167), Siemens (164), HP (154), IGT (140), AMEX (126), Biometric Imaging (122), and Cross Match (110).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the Biometrics, IBM and HP form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global IEEE 802.11n WLAN Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-23T22:23:00.004-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 20 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for IEEE 802.11n WLAN are as follows:

Broadcom (244), Intel (227), Nokia (171), Samsung (134), Apple Computer (85), Marvell World Trad (72), InterDigital (71), RIM (69), Toshiba (64), Qualcomm (60), Sony (46), and TI (44).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the IEEE 802.11n WLAN, Broadcom, Intel, Nokia, and Samsung form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global NFC Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-22T18:59:00.003-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for NFC technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 20 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for NFC are as follows:

Sony (229), Nokia (130), MS (76), Philips (67), Broadcom (65), Samsung (58), Motorola (57), NXP (43), First Data Co (22), Qualcomm (22), IBM (19), Vodafon (18), and Inside Contactless (17).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the NFC, Sony, Nokia, and IBM form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global Smart Grids Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-21T20:28:00.003-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for smart grid technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 20 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for smart grid are as follows:

Abb (78), Siemens (50), GE (41), Hitachi (35), Microsemi (32), Samsung SDI (31), Superpower (26), and Nexans (25).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the smart grids, Abb, Siemens, and GE form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

US Mobile Telecom Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-17T05:26:00.005-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for mobile communication technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the US issued patent data base.

As of Oct. 15 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for mobile telecom are as follows:

Ericsson (3923), Nokia (3376), Motorola (3364), Samsung (2148), NEC (2061), Alcatel-Lucent (2013), Qualcomm (1997), MS (1884), Matsushita (1573), IBM (1544), Intel (1451), Sony (1356), and Nortel (1210).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the mobile telecommunications, Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global RFID Patent Portfolios Analysis

2009-10-16T16:36:00.002-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for RFID technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 15 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for Mobile WiMAX are as follows:

Motorola (Symbol) (555), Fujitsu (274), Hitachi (272), Dai Nippon Printing (269), IBM (265), Intermec (214), Brother (190), Philips (189), Toshiba (138), TI (133), and Keystone (Micron) (128).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the Mobile RFID, Motorola (Symbol), IBM, and Intermec form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLCAll Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global 4G (LTE, Mobile WiMAX) Patent Portfolios Analysis II. Mobile WiMAX

2009-10-16T13:32:00.006-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for 4G (LTE and Mobile WiMAX) mobile technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 15 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for Mobile WiMAX are as follows:

Samsung (488), LG (147), Intel (125), Motorola (88), ETRI (82), Nokia (57), Fujitsu (40), Qualcomm (36), SKT(34), Alcatel-Lucent (33), Nortel (29), RIM (28), TI (27), and Huawei (22).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the Mobile WiMAX, Samsung show the most excellent portfolio management capability and unchallenged competitive position similar to the case of Qualcomm's CDMA patent portfolios.

©2009 TechIPm, LLCAll Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global 4G (LTE, Mobile WiMAX) Patent Portfolios Analysis I. LTE

2009-10-16T09:22:00.012-04:00

Using the Innography, which is a business intelligent solution for IP management (http://www.innography.com/), the patent portfolios for 4G (LTE and Mobile WiMAX) mobile technologies are analyzed. To find the key IPR (issued patents and published applications) holders and their patent portfolios, semantic method is used for the keyword searching of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, JIPO, KIPO, CIPO, WPO etc.)

As of Oct. 15 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for LTE are as follows:

Qualcomm (561), Nokia (327), InterDigital (315), Samsung (240), Ericsson (231), LG (194), Motorola (130), Alcatel-Lucent (117), RIM (93), and Nortel (88).

Using the identified key IPR holders' patents, patent portfolios are compared with respect to portfolio quality measures (citations, number of patents, and technology coverage) and portfolio utilization measures (revenue, global families, and litigation information).

As for the LTE, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, InterDigital, and Nortel form a leader group in portfolio management capability.

©2009 TechIPm, LLCAll Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Global LTE Essential Patent Candidates 3Q 2009

2009-10-06T06:41:00.005-04:00

As of September 30 2009, there are total of 1607 declarations for LTE essential patent candidates in the lists of ETSI IPR Online, which are issued, published, and pending patents worldwide including PCT applications.

As for the global LTE Essential Patent Candidates by Country of registration, US is the top (67%), followed by China (10%) and S. Korea (6%) as of September 30 2009.

As for the global LTE Essential Patent Candidates by Company, Qualcomm is the top (25%) followed by InterDigital (16%), Nokia (13%), Samsung (11%), Huawei (11%), and LG (9%) as of September 30 2009.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC
All Rights Reserved http://www.techipm.com/

NPE (Non-Practicing Entity) and Patent Reform Bill 2009

2009-10-01T05:30:00.009-04:00

By the definition of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll), "non-practicing entity" (NPE) is a patent owner who does not manufacture or use the patented invention, but rather than abandoning the right to exclude, an NPE seeks to enforce its right through the negotiation of licenses and litigation.

According to Patent Freedom (https://www.patentfreedom.com/), as of December 2008, there are about 220 NPEs and over 800 subsidiaries including such as Intellectual Ventures and InterDigital. NPEs hold more than 16,000 patent families and are involved in more than 2,200 lawsuits (12% of total patent litigations).

Among the NPEs, especially Intellectual Ventures (IV) recently got a media attention due to a declaration of litigation proxy war. Gene Quinn, founder of IPWatchdog, expressed the IV's indirect route to court as "The Empire Strikes Back, Intellectual Ventures Style" (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/09/02/the-empire-strikes-back-intellectual-ventures-style/id=5500/).

NPE defenders argued that NPE is a natural evolution of IP business in the knowledge-based
economy. NPE defenders insisted that the NPEs could be appreciated for the valuable secondary market they are creating. These intellectual investors recycle otherwise unused assets and make them part of the productive economy again (http://hallingblog.com/2009/09/18/in-defense-of-patent-trolls).

NPE opponents, however, said that the NPEs are hampering US innovation by abusing patent system and imposing heavy litigation cost and licensing fee burden to the companies. Recent written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Coalition of Patent Fairness (http://www.patentfairness.org/) revealed the negative role of NPEs in innovation promotion and job creation.

The Coalition of Patent Fairness insisted that the current patent system has created a litigation based cottage NPEs. The coalition mentioned that a meaningful reform through passing the Patent Reform Act of 2009 (http://www.autm.net/Content/NavigationMenu/About/PublicPolicy/PatentReform/S515.pdf) will enable US companies to dedicate more resources to technology innovation and the creation of new jobs.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Essential Patent IPR Shareholders 3Q 2009 Update

2009-09-29T17:08:00.009-04:00

As of Aug. 31 2009, there are total of 18 IPR shareholders for LTE essential patent candidates in lists of ETSI IPR Online, which are issued, published, and pending patents at the USPTO: Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom, Ericsson, ETRI, Huawei, iCODING, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, and Texas Instruments.

Among the 18 IPR shareholders for LTE essential patent candidates, Qualcomm was the top (32%) followed by InterDigital (16%), Nokia (14%), and LG (11%) in IPR share as of Aug. 31 2009 in the US.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

LTE IPR, Innovation, and Strategy

2009-09-25T08:14:00.001-04:00

Followings are the collection of TechIPm's recent analysis and insight.
I wish they are useful information to you.

LTE Essential Patents Landscape 2Q 2009 http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/3gpplteessential-patents2009q2brief

LTE IPR Analysis 3Q 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lteiprofdmmimo20093q

LTE and 4G Executive Briefing 3Q 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lte-and-4g-executive-briefing-3q-2009

LTE Mobile Phone Competitor Analysis 3Q 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lte-mobile-phone-competitor-analysis-3q-2009

Thank you.
Alex

Alex G. Lee, Ph.D.
Registered Patent Agent
Principal
TechIPm, LLC
www.techipm.com

LTE Strategic Options: Samsung+Ericsson Alliance

2009-09-22T07:00:00.005-04:00

Based on TechIPm's recent analysis for LTE essential patent candidates among LTE mobile phone competitors (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/09/lte-mobile-phone-competitor-analysis.html) and among LTE infrastructure equipment competitors (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/09/ericssons-lte-patent-landscape.html), a possible scenario for strategic business alliance between Samsung (mobile phone manufacturer) and Ericsson (infrastructure equipment manufacturer) is analyzed.

Samsung+Ericsson's combined LTE patent portfolio for the LTE commercial product (baseband modem and protocol stack) appeared to be very competitive and complementary each other in making up the Samsung's HW oriented and Ericsson's SW oriented LTE innovations.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

Ericsson's LTE Patent Landscape

2009-09-20T16:18:00.006-04:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for global market leaders in mobile infrastructure manufactures: Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and NSN. US designating essential patent candidates at the ETSI IPR Online website are analyzed. Among the four major competitors for the US LTE infrastructure market, only the Ercisson has a meaningful number of essential patent candidates for the analysis (e.g. most of Huawei's 147 LTE essential patent candidates are in China’s national stage).

Ericsson declared 24 essential patents (total of 30 candidates in TS36 specifications) out of 49 total patents (e.g. including PCT applications) for the US market as of Aug. 31 2009.

The most declared specification for the Ericsson's LTE essential patent candidates was TS36.323 (PDCP protocol specification) followed by TS36.322 (RLC protocol specification), and TS36.331 (RRC protocol specification).

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Mobile Phone Competitor Analysis

2009-09-18T09:12:00.005-04:00

LTE patent portfolios are researched for global leader in mobile phone manufactures: LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. US designating essential patent candidates at the ETSI IPR Online website are analyzed.

LG declared total of 100 essential patent candidates (Issued: 4, Published: 34, Pending: 62) as of Aug. 31 2009. Motorola declared total of 48 essential patent candidates (Issued: 48) as of Aug. 31 2009. Nokia declared total of 134 essential patent candidates (Issued: 65, Published: 59, Pending: 10) as of Aug. 31 2009. Samsung declared total of 49 essential patent candidates (Issued: 2, Published: 32, Pending: 15) as of Aug. 31 2009.

The most declared specification for the LG's LTE essential patent candidates was TS36.321 (MAC protocol specification). The most declared specification for the Motorola's, the Nokia's, and the Samsung's LTE essential patent candidates was TS36.211 (physical channels and modulation).

In the analysis for the LTE commercial product (baseband modem and protocol stack) related patents, Nokia was the leader followed by LG both in modem and protocol product related innovations.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

Motorola's LTE Essential Patent Landscape

2009-09-17T14:33:00.005-04:00

In addition to the total of 103 Motorola's essential patent candidates published in the United States before Aug. 1 2009, which are indentified by a keyword search, LTE patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website are analyzed.

Total of 48 patent declarations issued by USPTO are identified for the Motorola's LTE essential patent candidates as of Aug. 31 2009.

Top 3 most declared specifications for the Motorola's LTE essential patent candidates are TS36.211 (physical channels and modulation), TS36.213 (physical layer procedures), and TS36.300 (overall description; Stage 6).

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

NEC's LTE Business Strategy: Synergy with RFID

2009-09-15T08:10:00.005-04:00

Recently NEC announced the launching of NEC CASIO Mobile Communication which is a strategic alliance in mobile equipment business among NEC, Casio, and Hitachi.

As NEC is one of major LTE equipment providers for NTT DoCoMo’s LTE business which is going to launch its commercial LTE service in the mid of 2010 and Casio and Hitachi is one of major LTE equipment providers for KDDI’s LTE business which plans to launch its commercial LTE service at the end of 2011, the combined company has a high chance of leading the LTE equipments market.

In recent LTE IPR research by TechIPm, NEC was a ‘Dark Horse’ in LTE IPR for the LTE baseband modem products (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/09/lte-patent-landscape-for-ofdmmimo.html). In addition to the LTE innovation, NEC+Hitachi were one of innovation leaders in RFID based on TechIPm’s research for RFID patent landscape (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/04/rfid-innovation-frontline-2009-1q_30.html).

This rare case of being an innovation leader both in LTE and RFID will definitely benefit to NEC’s future business in an LTE based emerging market - RFID assisted intelligent mobile health care services.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

IMT-Advanced Standardization

2009-09-11T06:51:00.005-04:00

The 4G mobile communication standardization (IMT-Advanced) will be started in full-scale from this October as the beginning of proposal for standard candidate technology to ITU-R (International Telecommunication Union – Radio Communication). The IMT-Advanced standards establishment is scheduled to be early 2011 through the expert evaluation process.

3GPP’s LTE-Advnaced and IEEE’s Mobile WiMax Evolution are the two major candidates for IMT-Advanced standards. The two candidates are expected to be selected by ITU-R. 3GPP’s LTE-Advnaced is backed by most EU based companies and IEEE’s Mobile WiMax Evolution is backed by most Asian and US based companies. Some of Asian and US based companies such as Samsung support the LTE-Advnaced and the Mobile WiMax Evolution at the same time.

As the standardization for the IMT-Advanced is heating up, strategic alliances among players sharing interests are now speeding up. In the 22nd Korea-China-Japan B3G standardization cooperation meeting held in Seoul recently, the three countries are agreed to the strategic alliance for the proposal for IMT-Advanced standards candidate technology.

http://www.techipm.com/

LTE Patent Portfolio as Strategic Alliance Tool: InterDigital+TI

2009-09-08T09:42:00.009-04:00

Based on TechIPm's recent IPR analysis for LTE OFDM/MIMO standards (http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lteiprofdmmimo20093q ), a possible scenario for strategic business alliance between InterDigital (IP licensing company) and Texas Instruments (semiconductor chip manufacturer) is analyzed by comparing to Qualcomm's (IP licensing company + semiconductor chip manufacturer) LTE patent portfolio for LTE OFDM/MIMO standards in number of patents, technology coverage, and quality by Essentiality Index (see the figures above).

InterDigital+TI's combined LTE patent portfolio for OFDM/MIMO standards shows that the InterDigital+TI strategic alliance could be a strong competitor to Qualcomm in LTE baseband chip and IPR licensing market.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/