LTE Standard Essential Patents 2Q 2015

TechIPm researched patents for the LTE standard regarding UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNBs, Femtocells, Relays) products, issued in the USPTO as of June 30, 2015. TechIPm’s research identified more than 1700 patents that are related to the LTE standard.

To evaluate the essentiality of a patent for the LTE-Advanced standard and the key features of the LTE-Advanced Enhancements standard, patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each identified LTE related patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 10 technical specifications for the LTE RAN (Radio Access Network), Release 11 technical specifications for CoMP, Release 12 technical specifications for EPDCCH and D2D (Device to Device) Communications. Total of 495 patents are selected as the potential candidates of the LTE standard essential patents (SEPs) (their patent disclosure are related to LTE technical specifications overall).

Among 39 IPR holders, LG Electronics accounts for 16% of the IPR share followed by Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Optis Cellular Technology, InterDigital, Ericsson, Google and Nokia.

TechIPm’s research also uncovered increasing IPR share of the LTE SEPs by the active monetization entities (entities exploit LTE SEPs for monetization purpose actively) including the patent trolls. IPR share of the LTE SEPs by the active monetization entities accounts for 28%, which implies the increasing potential litigation risks. TechIPm’s research identified many LTE SEPs owned by the active monetization entities that are used for several patent litigations already.

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

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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How much will Apple need to pay to Ericsson for a reasonable licensing royalty of 4G LTE patents?

Recently, Ericsson sued Apple for infringement over 41 Ericsson patents including 4G/LTE standard essential patents (SEPs) related to Apple's iPhones and iPads.  Ericsson said Apple owes it patent royalties for using its wireless technologies in the iPhone and iPad, but Apple refused its fair and reasonable licensing offer.

Notwithstanding the recent administrative and judicial blocking against exploiting SEPs for injunction, several courts ruled that SEPs are still eligible for monetary relief for infringement. In Microsoft Co., v. Motorola, Inc., No. 2:10-cv-01823-JLR (W.D. WA), the court provided basic guidelines for assessing FRAND royalty for SEPs. The guidelines are based on the Georgia-Pacific analysis of the reasonable royalty (Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. U.S. Plywood Corp., 318 F. Supp. 1116, 1120 (S.D.N.Y. 1970)) modified for taking into account SSOs’ primary goals for adopting FRAND commitments. The key modification to the Georgia-Pacific factors leads to the reasoning that a royalty in a patent pool for the specific SEPs at issue or comparable licensing transactions as a candidate for the royalty established through negotiation under FRAND commitments. Thus, the royalty rate in the recently formed LTE patent pool may provide expected FRAND licensing revenue.

Another court’s guidelines for assessing FRAND royalty for SEPs can be found in In re INNOVATIO IP VENTURES, LLC, No. 1:11-cv-09308 (N.D. Ill. 2013), Dkt. No. 975. The INNOVATIO IP VENTURES court calculated FRAND royalty (cap) of WiFi SEPs as (average profit margin to the contribution of patentee’s SEPs) x (net profit of relating products) x (pro rata share of patentee’s SEPs to the total number of WiFi SEPs providing similar contribution to the profit). Similar calculation can also lead to the FRAND royalty (cap) for 4G LTE smartphone SEPs.

To evaluate Apple’s 4G LTE smartphone SEPs licensing royalty owed to Ericsson, Ericsson’s IPR share in 4G LTE SEPs is researched. Recent TechIPm, LLC’s research for 4G LTE standard related patent in the US reviles Ericsson’s 4G LTE smartphone SEPs’ IPR share is around 7% (for details about analysis method, please refer to 4G LTE Patents for Standard Innovativeness Ranking: http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2015/01/4g-lte-patents-for-standard_8.html).

Then, based on various market research data as of 4Q 2014, the net profit of Apple from smartphone sales per year in the US market is calculated as roughly $10 B. Finally, if the average profit margin to the contribution of the 4G LTE SEPs of 3% (smallest scalable product base) is assumed, the licensing royalty of Ericsson that can have from Apple is expected to be around $200 M per year.

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

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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4G LTE Patents for Standard Innovativeness Ranking

To evaluate the innovativeness of patents for 4G LTE standard regarding UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNBs, Femtocells, Relays) products, more than 2000 4G LTE standard related patents that are issued in the USPTO as of Dec. 31, 2014 are reviewed.  TechIPm, LLC’s 4G LTE patents for standard research identified total of 1600 patents that are related to the LTE-Advanced standard.

To evaluate the essentiality of a patent for the LTE-Advanced standard, patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each 4G LTE related patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 10 technical specifications for the LTE RAN (Radio Access Network). The evaluated patents are classified according to the level of essentiality that is specified by the 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.

Ranking for the innovativeness of each 4G LTE standard patents assignee is evaluated by the number of patents weighted by the quality factor (EI). Among 35 IPR shareholders, LG is the leader followed by Samsung, Qualcomm, Google (Motorola), Ericsson, Nokia, Apple, InterDigital, BlackBerry, and Panasonic.

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

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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4G LTE Standard Essential Patents Global IPR Governance 1Q 2014

TechIPm, LLC’s 4G LTE standard essential patent research for the US and EU market leader among 4G LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures identified total of 288 issued patents in the USPTO and EPO as the potential candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standard essential patents as of January 31, 2014.

To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each 4G LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 10 technical specifications (LTE-Advanced).

4G LTE IPR shareholders for standard essential patent candidates granted in the USPTO and EPO are Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, ETRI, Huawei, III, Innovative Sonic, Intel, InterDigital, ITRI, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, NSN, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Samsung, TI and ZTE. Among 23 IPR shareholders, LG is the leader followed by Samsung, Qualcomm, Nokia (including NSN), Motorola, Ericsson and InterDigital.

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

©2014 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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VoLTE Patents for Smartphones

The Voice over LTE (VoLTE) provides High Definition Voice over all IP networks.  It enables simultaneous voice and data traffic on LTE. SK Telecom and LG Uplus in South Korea launched the world’s first VoLTE in August 2012.  MetroPCS also launched VoLTE using the LG Connect smartphone in 2012. To fully deploy VoLTE services, seamless connection of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and its associated Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in a mobile environment is an essential factor.  Thus, several technical features at the radio access protocol level are required.

Four technical features at the radio access protocol level that support seamless VoIP connection in a mobile environment are specified in LTE standard specifications: TTI bundling for HARQ (reduce the latency of data transmission by a smartphone), Discontinuous Reception (DRX: save the power consumption), Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS: reduce the scheduling overhead ) and Robust Header Compression (ROHC: reduce RTP/UDP/IP packet size).

TechIPm, LLC’s 4G LTE patent research for the US market identifies that there are total of 70 published applications and issued patents relating to four technical features at the radio access protocol level that supporting seamless VoIP connection. Nokia is the leading IPR holder followed by BlackBerry, Ericsson, Innovative Sonic, Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, ETRI, InterDigital and Motorola.

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

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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Acacia’s new weapon US 8055820: LTE standard essential patent?

Cellular Communications Equipment, a shell company of Acacia Research, sued LG electronics and its customer Telcos (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile) for patent infringement (6:13-cv-00508). Cellular Communications Equipment exploited US8055820 that is acquired from Nokia Siemens Networks. The accused devices are LG Escape 4G, LG Nitro HD, LG Optimus G, LG Optimus G Pro (AT&T); LG Intuition, LG Lucid 4G, LG Lucid 2, LG Revolution 4G, LG Spectrum 4G, LG Spectrum 2 (Verizon); LG Mach 4G LTE, LG Optimus G, LG Viper 4G LTE (Sprint); LG Connect 4G, LG Esteem 4G, LG Motion 4G, LG Spirit 4G (T-Mobile).

US8055820 is related to methods and systems for communicating buffer status reports to support uplink scheduling operations between user equipments and a mobile base station:

1. A method, comprising:

monitoring a usage of a plurality of buffers;

detecting one of a plurality of pre-selected conditions corresponding to the plurality of buffers;

designating one of a plurality of buffer status reporting formats comprising a long buffer status reporting format and a short buffer status reporting format depending on the pre-selected condition detected; and

communicating a buffer status report to a network device in accordance with the buffer status reporting format designated, wherein the designating designates the long buffer status reporting format when there is sufficient uplink bandwidth to communicate using the long buffer status reporting format.

Specifically, US8055820 covers plurality of buffer status reporting formats comprises a long buffer status reporting format and a short buffer status reporting format that are described in LTE standard specification TS36.321. The relevant part of the TS36.321 is Sec. 5.4.5 Buffer Status Reporting.

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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LTE patent FRAND licensing revenue can reach around $1.2 billion in 2016

In Microsoft Co., v. Motorola, Inc., No. 2:10-cv-01823-JLR (W.D. WA), the court provided basic guidelines for assessing FRAND royalty for standard essential patents (SEPs). The guidelines are based on the Georgia-Pacific analysis of the reasonable royalty (Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. U.S. Plywood Corp., 318 F. Supp. 1116, 1120 (S.D.N.Y. 1970)) modified for taking into account SSOs’ primary goals for adopting FRAND commitments. The court provided five primary goals for adopting FRAND commitments: 1. Promotion of widespread adoption of SSOs’ standards; 2. Avoidance of patent hold-up; 3. Avoidance of royalty stacking; 4. Creation of valuable standards; 5. Exclusion of hold-up value in the reasonable royalty. The court, then, modified the Georgia-Pacific factors to account for the five primary goals for adopting FRAND commitments. The key modification to the Georgia-Pacific factors leads to the reasoning that a royalty in a patent pool for the specific SEPs at issue or comparable licensing transactions as a candidate for the royalty established through negotiation under FRAND commitments. Thus, the royalty rate in the recently formed LTE patent pool may provide expected FRAND licensing revenue.

Via licensing’s LTE patent pool set the royalty rate as 3% for end user producuts (e.g. smartphones), 1% for data terminals (e.g. data cards), and 2% for Femtocell devices with volume discount up to 30%. According to LTE market research by Signals and Systems Telecom, LTE devices shipment in the world market will reach around 600 million units in 2016. Thus using the royalty about $2 per unit, 4G LTE patents FRAND licensing revenue is expected to be around $1.2 billion in 2016 globally. Because the royalty per unit is not dependent on the number of holders of SEPs, one may calculate licensing revenue for each holder of SEPs proportional to its number of SEPs (e.g. http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2013/05/4g-lte-standard-essential-patent.html).

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

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved 
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Samsung's win in ITC against Apple could adversely affect to Samsung

ITC finally determined that Apple’s products infringed Samsung’s 3G mobile standard essential patent (SEP) US7706348 (for an infringement analysis, please refer http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2013/06/samsungs-us7706348-patent-proves-apples.html).  ITC’s determination was rather surprise because its decision was contrary to recent decisions in the federal district courts banning injunctive relief for SEPs.

When Apple accused Samsung of infringement of its user interface software and design patents, Samsung counter-attacked utilizing its SEPs. SEPs encompass intellectual property rights (IPRs) for an essential aspect of standardized technologies. Usually, all the essential aspects of standardized technologies are specified in standard specifications. Thus, SEPs can be defined as patents that include one or more claims that are infringed by the implementation of certain standard specifications.  Consequently, Apple’s standard-compatible products that implement the standard specifications for mobile communications may infringe SEPs of Samsung. As incumbents in mobile communication industry and holders of strong mobile patent portfolios, SEPs were a natural choice for Samsung to counter-attack Apple, which is the computer industry incumbent, and thus, lacks in SEPs for mobile communications. The outcomes, however, were different than expected.

Standards are often developed and set-up through the standardization process by the standard setting organizations (SSOs). A majority of SSOs require that the members participating in the standardization process to agree to license their SEPs under fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms to any implementers of the standard.  The members’ agreements to license their SEPs under FRAND terms and conditions are usually called FRAND commitments.  In general, FRAND commitments are interpreted as enforceable contractual obligations between a member and an SSO.

In Apple, Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., No. 1:11-cv-08540 (N.D. Ill.), the court interpreted FRAND commitments such that the patentee “implicitly acknowledged that a royalty is an adequate compensation for a patent license.”  Thus the patentee of SEPs is not entitled to an injunctive relief because “the inadequacy of monetary relief” is required for the entitlement of the injunctive relief and FRAND royalty would provide the adequate remedy. In Microsoft, Co., v. Motorola, Inc., No. 2:10-cv-01823-JLR (W.D. WA), the court also ruled that FRAND royalty provide an adequate compensation because a patentee “has always been required to grant a license” to an implementer at FRAND royalty for its SEPs and the patentee has never irreparably harmed.

In Motorola v. Apple, Inv. No. 337-TA-745 (International Trade Commission), however, the Administrative Law Judge ruled that FRAND commitments do not preclude the exclusion order for SEPs in ITC.  ITC reasoned that its investigations to determine exclusion order banning importation of infringing product for violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1337) have a wider scope because its interests include public interest in addition to private interest.  

In response to ITC’s ruling of availability of exclusion order for SEPs two US government agencies- Department of Justice (DOJ) and Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) -jointly announced that in some instances the remedy of an exclusion order may be inconsistent with the public interest.  The agencies insisted that SPEs cannot be used for block sales or imports of infringed products in cases that the patentee tries to exploit the SEPs’ market power through exclusion order for pressuring an implementer to accept unreasonably high royalty against its FREND commitments. The agencies reasoned that such activity and resulting exclusion order may be anti-competitive, and thus, harm consumers. Recently some leaders of the US Congress intellectual property and antitrust subcommittees submitted a letter to the ITC expressing similar concerns regarding exclusion order for SEPs.

Having understood the background and issues surrounding injunctive relief for SEPs, let’s think about the implications of this ITC’s determination to Samsung itself. Symbolically, this is a victory to Samsung because it was the only win in patent battles against Apple. This can show to consumers that Samsung is a innovator in mobile communications and Apple is a copycat. Economically, the gain to Samsung from this ITC’s decision will be limited because all the affected Apple’s products are old models, and thus, have diminishing market share. On this other hand it could adversely affect to Samsung.

This ITC’s decision affirms that FRAND commitments do not preclude the exclusion order for SEPs in ITC. So what to Samsung? Samsung itself could be subject to banning importation of its products – in this case its flagship smartphones, Galaxy S3 and S4. Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4 all support LTE communications. In other ITC pending cases Ericsson (337-TA-862) and InterDigital (337-TA-868) claimed that Samsung Galaxy S3 infringed their LTE SEPs (for details about LTE SEPs, please refer http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2013/05/4g-lte-standard-essential-patent.html).

Actually, TechIPm’s essentiality analysis confirms that three patents claimed in the ITC lawsuits are LTE SEPs:

US6445917 (Mobile station measurements with event-based reporting): this patent provides a perfect mapping between the claims at issue and the LTE standard specification. It relates to measurements in the process of handover operation as described in TS 36.331 Sec. 5 and TS 36.300 Sec. 10.1.3.

US8169992 (Uplink scrambling during random access): this patent relates to contention based random access procedure utilizing CRC scrambling for RNTI as described in TS 36.213 Sec. 6, TS 36.300 Sec. 10.1.5, TS 36.321 Sec. 5.1, and TS 36.212 Sec 5.3.

US7941151 (Method and system for providing channel assignment information used to support uplink and downlink channels): this patent relates to providing channel assignment information to support uplink and downlink transmissions utilizing the DCI and CRC scrambling for RNTI as described in TS 36.213 Sec. 7 & 8, TS 36.300 Sec. 11.1, and TS 36.212 Sec 5.3.3.1.

As the market share of Galaxy S4 increases, it also could be included in the list of infringing products.

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

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved 
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4G LTE Standard Essential Patent Candidates 2Q 2013

TechIPm, LLC’s 4G LTE standard essential patent research for US market leader among 4G LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures identified total of 283 patents as the potential candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standard essential patents as of May 30, 2013.

To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each 4G LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 10 technical specifications (LTE-Advanced). 

4G LTE IPR shareholders for standard essential patent candidates are Alcatel-Lucent, Andrew, Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson. ETRI, Huawei, III, Innovative Sonic, Intel, InterDigital, ITRI, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, NSN, NTT Docomo, Qualcomm, ROCKSTAR, Samsung, TI, and ZTE. 

Among 23 IPR shareholders, Samsung is the leader followed by LG, Qualcomm, Motorola, Nokia, InterDigital, ZTE, Innovative Sonic, Ericsson, and ETRI.

Among the 283 standard essential patent candidates, 182 candidates are issued as of May 30, 2013: LG is the leader followed by Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, InterDigital, TI, Innovative Sonic, ZTE, and Ericsson.

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

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved 
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Samsung Galaxy S III: Center of LTE Patent War

Samsung Galaxy S III is the bestseller smartphone that was sold more than 40 million units worldwide.  In the US, Samsung Galaxy S III is now connecting its customers through 4G LTE networks. As the market dominance of Samsung Galaxy S III increases, it is also placed on the center of LTE patent war.

Ericsson filed patent infringement complaints against Samsung in ITC (US International Trade Commission) and the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaints claimed that, among other claims, Samsung Galaxy S III infringed its LTE patents. TechIPm’s essentiality analysis confirms that two patents claimed in the lawsuits are LTE standard essential patent candidates:

US6445917 (Mobile station measurements with event-based reporting): this patent provides a perfect mapping between the claims at issue and the LTE standard specification. It relates to measurements in the process of handover operation as described in TS 36.331 Sec. 5 and TS 36.300 Sec. 10.1.3.

US8169992 (Uplink scrambling during random access): this patent relates to contention based random access procedure utilizing CRC scrambling for RNTI as described in TS 36.213 Sec. 6, TS 36.300 Sec. 10.1.5, TS 36.321 Sec. 5.1, and TS 36.212 Sec 5.3.

InterDigital filed patent infringement complaints against Samsung in ITC and the District Court for Delaware. TechIPm’s essentiality analysis confirms that one patent claimed in the lawsuits is a LTE standard essential patent candidate:

US7941151 (Method and system for providing channel assignment information used to support uplink and downlink channels): this patent relates to providing channel assignment information to support uplink and downlink transmissions utilizing the DCI and CRC scrambling for RNTI as described in TS 36.213 Sec. 7 & 8, TS 36.300 Sec. 11.1, and TS 36.212 Sec 5.3.3.1.

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

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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LTE Patent War Started!

TechIPm’s analysis for patents in recent lawsuit finds that Ericsson used its LTE patents in ITC litigation against Samsung. Even if several entities claimed the LTE patent litigation, Ericsson is the first actually used LTE standard essential patents in patent lawsuit. Among three LTE patents used in ITC litigation against Samsung, two patents turned out to be patents identified as LTE standard essential patent candidates in TechIPm’s research for smartphone LTE patents (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2012/12/smartphone-lte-patent-ipr-governance-4q.html): Ericsson holds more than 30 issued patents including three LTE standard-essential patent candidates as of January 15, 2013. Most of Ericsson’s LTE patents are characterized by high forward citations.

TechIPm’s research for patents that are directly related to smartphone LTE implementation in the current US market as of January 15, 2013 reveals that there are more than 400 issued patents shared by more than 20 IPRs holders. According to GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), there are 83 LTE enabled smartphones as of 2Q 2012. It is also expected that the number of LTE enabled smartphones will be doubled in two years. These facts imply that there are enough number of smartphone LTE patents for bring patent infringement lawsuits and products which can be involved in the patent disputes any time soon.

©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Smartphone LTE Patent Acquisitions: Alliance among Competitors?

TechIPm’s research for patents that are directly related to LTE smartphone implementation in the current US market as of January 15, 2013 reveals that holding of LTE IPRs through patent acquisition process will grow among incumbents and newcomers as the LTE became the key communications technology for smartphones and more players (e.g. Amazon and Sony) enter into the smartphone markets.

One example case is the LTE patent portfolio of Apple. Currently, Apple holds more than 90 patents directly related to LTE smartphone implementation. Nearly 95% of the LTE patents are acquired from Nortel, Freescale Semiconductor, and Intellectual Ventures.  The other example is the LTE patent portfolio of RIM (Research in Motion). More than 10% of RIM’s LTE patents are acquired from Nortel, Ericsson, and Alcatel-Lucent.

In analyzing the patent acquisition status of the LTE IPR shareholders, one interesting point is found: Motorola acquired several LTE patents from RIM. This may indicate a possible alliance among would be competitors for holding of LTE IPRs.

 ©2013 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Smartphone LTE Patent IPR Governance 4Q 2012

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 November 30, 2012, total of 837 patents are identified which are directly related to LTE smartphone implementation in the current US market as of 4Q 2012.

The IPR shareholders (including the number of issued patents and published applications) for smartphone LTE patents are Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, Broadcome, Ericsson, ETRI, Huawei, Innovative Sonic, InterDigital, Intellectual Ventures, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, NSN, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, RIM, ROCKSTAR, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TI and ZTE. Among the 23 IPR shareholders for smartphone LTE patents, Qualcomm is the leader followed by LG, Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, InterDigital, RIM, Ericsson, ZTE, ETRI, TI and NSN.

Among the 837 patents for smartphone LTE implementation, 404 patents are issued as of 4Q 2012: LG is the leader followed by Nokia, Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Qualcomm, Ericsson, InterDigital, RIM and TI.

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

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Ericsson’s LTE Patents: Problem for Smartphone Manufactures?

Recently, Ericsson, which is the global market leader among the mobile infrastructure manufactures, sued Samsung, which is the global market leader among the mobile phone manufactures, for the patent infringement. If Ericsson decides to sue mobile phone manufactures, it could be a problem because Ericsson does not produce the mobile phones in the US: Ericsson is a NPE for this kind of patent lawsuit!

TechIPm’s research for Ericsson’s LTE patent in USPTO shows that Ericsson holds 38 patents (33 issued patents, 5 published applications) directly related to LTE smartphone implementation in the current US market as of 3Q 2012. Among 33 patents, 10 patents are identified as patents for LTE baseband modem and 28 patents are identified as patents for LTE protocol SW.

Comparison of patent disclosures with 3GPP technical specifications shows that, among TS36 specifications, TS36.331 (RRC protocol specification) was the top followed by TS36.322 (RLC protocol specification) and, among key technologies, Radio Link Control was the top category that Ericsson’s LTE patents are distributed.

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


©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Apple's Smartphone LTE Patents Landscape

TechIPm’s research for the patent ownership change to Apple in USPTO shows that Apple holds 91 patents (48 issued patents, 43 published applications) directly related to LTE smartphone implementation in the current US market as of 3Q 2012. Among 91 patents, 77 patents are identified as patents for LTE baseband modem and 14 patents are identified as patents for LTE protocol SW.

Comparison of patent disclosures with 3GPP technical specifications shows that, among TS36 specifications, TS36.211 (physical channels and modulation) was the top followed by TS36.213 (physical layer procedures) and, among key technologies, Channel Estimation and MIMO were the top category that Apple’s LTE patents are distributed.

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

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Apple is ready for LTE Smartphone

S. Korea’s major newspapers reported that Samsung started to investigate a possible patent infringement lawsuit against Apple’s next version of its smartphone (iPhone 5?) once it adopt LTE technology. According to GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), there are 83 LTE smartphones as of 2Q 2012. Thus, it is expected that Apple’s next version of its smartphone will support LTE following the market trend.

TeechIPm’s LTE standards essential patent research for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures identified total of 187 patents as the potential candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards essential patents as of 2Q 2012. 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 (Release 10 for carrier aggregation specifications). Among the 187 essential patent candidates 90 candidates were issued as of 2Q 2012. Samsung was the second in holding the issued essential patent candidates (which can be used in infringement lawsuit right now).

Recent TechIPm’s LTE patent research, however, shows that Apple also holds at least one issued essential patent candidate that was acquired from Freescale. Considering only LTE patents directly related to smartphone implementation in the current US market, preliminary research reveals that Apple holds LTE patent portfolio comparable to Samsung’s in patent numbers (which can be used in counter attack defense). Detail comparative analysis between Apple’s and Samsung’s patent portfolio is underway.


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

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Smartphone Wireless Standards Essential Patents Competitive Index 2Q 2012

Standards essential patent candidates for three key Smartphone wireless technologies are researched: LTE, NFC, and Zigbee. To find the key IPR holders for NFC patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed.


As to LTE, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 8 technical specifications (Release 10 for carrier aggregation specifications). As to NFC, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each NFC patent are compared to the NFC Forum standard specifications (Activity, Digital, Protocol, LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), NDEF (Data Exchange Format), RF/Analog, RTD (Record Type Definition), and Tag Operation). As to Zigbee, patent disclosures in claim and detail description for each Zigbee patent are compared to the IEEE 802.15.4-2006 standard specifications.

To find the innovation leadership for Smartphone wireless technologies, a competitive index (C.I.) is devised by considering the IPR leadership in each key technology and IPR share (C.I. of 100 means the top for all three Smartphone wireless technologies): As of 2Q 2012, Samsung is the leader followed by Philips(+NXP), LG & Qualcomm, Nokia, Motorola(+Freescale), InterDigital, Sony, ETRI, and ZTE.

For details, please contact Alex Lee (alexglee@techipm.com).


©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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LTE Standards Essential Patent IPR Governance 2Q 2012

TechIPm, LLC’s LTE standards essential patent research for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures identified total of 187 patents as the potential candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards essential patents as of 2Q 2012. 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 (Release 10 for carrier aggregation specifications).


The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent candidates are Ericsson, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, Innovative Sonic, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel ((ROCKSTAR), NSN, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, Sharp, TI, and ZTE.

Among the 187 essential patent candidates 90 candidates are issued (including in allowance status) as of 2Q 2012: LG is the leader followed by Nokia and Samsung, Motorola and Nortel (ROCKSTAR), InterDigital, and Qualcomm.

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

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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IPWireless LTE Essential Patents

Recently, Intellectual Ventures and Nvidia announced that they jointly acquired about 500 patents owned by IPWireless. TechIPm LLC’s  analysis of IPWireless’ worldwide (USPTO, EPO, WPO, KIPO) patent portfolios shows that most of IPWireless’ patents are consist of  3G (WCDMA) mobile patents with a few CDMA (2G), HSDPA (3.5G)  and few LTE (4G) patents.

Following is one of IPWireless’ identified LTE essential patent candidates.

Patent Number: US20070155390 & KR20080091197

Title: Initial Connection Establishment In A Wireless Communication System

Claims:

1. A method of initiating a wireless connection and subsequent communication over a shared physical resource in a wireless communication system between user equipment and network equipment, the method, by the user equipment, comprising: deriving a temporary identifier; transmitting the temporary identifier to the network equipment; receiving a downlink message conveying the temporary identifier and a description of a scheduled resource on a shared channel, the scheduled resource comprising a resource allocated to the user equipment by the network equipment; and communicating data on the scheduled resource in response to the downlink message.

……..

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication system comprises an evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN).


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Adaptix’s LTE Patent in Lawsuit Against Apple

Adaptix sued Apple for patent infringement of Apple’s next version of its tablet, iPAD3 based on its patents US6947748 and US7454212. The lawsuit was about LTE technology adopted in iPAD3.

Adaptix’s patents US6947748 and US7454212 relate to channel evaluation method and adaptive modulation/coding scheme in OFDMA system utilizing reference signals (because Adaptix’s patents were aimed at WiMAX (802.11e) standards originally, they used the term pilot signals instead of reference signals).

Even though the channel evaluation method and adaptive modulation/coding scheme in OFDMA system utilizing reference signals are described in LTE standard specifications (TS36.211, 212, 213, 300, and 321), preliminary comparative research between claims in the patents and specifications shows that Adaptix’s patents US6947748 and US7454212 may not be essential for the implementation of iPAD3.

Further more, TechIPm’s intensive research of LTE patents essential for LTE devices implementation (LTE Essential Patent Candidates 3Q 2011: http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2011/07/lte-essential-patent-candidates-2011-3q.html), indicates that Qualcomm’s LTE chipsets, which are used in of iPAD3, may be protected by Qualcomm’s LTE patent portfolio.


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