The U.S. Holds IPR Leadership in Patents for Wireless Standards

To evaluate the IPR leadership in wireless communications, the US patents that are related to the key wireless standards are analyzed.  The wireless patens are grouped by mobile wireless communications (4G LTE) related patents and fixed wireless communications (WLAN, WPAN, NFC) related patents.  Patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each patent are analyzed as to whether the contents are within the scope of key standard specifications (3GPP, IEEE, ISO, NFC Forum).  Top 20 patent holders for each group are then selected to rank the combined IPR shares.  For details about the analysis, please refer “Wireless Patents for Standards & Applications 1Q 2015” (http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/wireless-patents-for-standards-applications-1q-2015).

For the mobile wireless communications IPR, LG Electronics is the leader followed by Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Google, Ericsson, Nokia, Apple, InterDigital, BlackBerry and Panasonic. For the fixed wireless communications IPR, Sony is the leader followed by Intel, Marvell, Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Cisco, NXP, Philips and Texas Instruments. Combining the mobile and fixed wireless communications IPR, Samsung Electronics is the leader followed by LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Intel, Sony, Nokia, Google, Ericsson, Marvell and InterDigital.

The combined IPR shares for the top 20 IPR holder’s countries based on the location of headquarter show that the U.S. holds IPR leadership in patents for the key wireless standards.

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

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802.11ac Gigabit WiFi Patents Landscape 4Q 2011

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.


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

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.


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60 GHz Wireless Systems Patent Landscape

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.


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Global IEEE 802.11n WLAN Patent Portfolios Analysis

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.


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