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

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

WiFi (IEEE 802.11 WLAN) Patents for Standard Ranking

As the number of patent applications is a good measure of innovation activities, to evaluate the WiFi technology innovation activities, more than 4000 issued patents in the USPTO obtained from the carefully constructed keyword search are reviewed.  Patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each patent are analyzed as to whether the contents are within the scope of key technologies (e.g. modulation & coding, PHY & MAC frames & functions, Access Control etc.) for the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/e/i/n standard specifications.

More than 8oo issued patents are identified as the key patents for the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/e/i/n standard specifications as of 1Q 2015. Among 85 IPR holders, Marvell is the leader followed by Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, Sony, Cisco, Broadcom, Philips, Texas Instruments and Toshiba.

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

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

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
http://www.techipm.com/

Mobile Patent Acquisition Investment: Monetization Strategy

Recent development of new business models and marketplaces in patent monetization (online patent marketplace, patent auction, patent pool, patent aggregation etc.) brought a boom in investment for mobile patent acquisition. Investment for mobile patent acquisition requires a careful consideration of several strategic measures. A few examples for the strategic measures are monetization liquidity, ROI, and risks.

Several characteristics of mobile patent, however, lead to a unique evaluation methodology for the strategic measures:

1. Evaluation of market demand and dynamics.

Whether the patent is related to
consumer products:semiconductor chips/modules, devices (dongle, modem), handheld devices (cell phone, smartphone, PDA), computing devices (PDA, netbook, laptop, desktop); or
infrastructure products:Mobile base station including relay/femtocell, core networks; or
application products.

2. Evaluation of patent portfolio.

Whether the patent portfolio is/has
essential patent; orwidely accepted as an essential for product implementation; or
new market generation potential.

3. Evaluation of risks.

Whether it is
stable against invalidity claims; or
easily avoidable from infringement.


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


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

Wireless Patent Monetization New Business Model

Investment in early stage patent combined with well tailored value creation methodology can develop a new business model for patent monetization.

Methodology

1. Candidate Selection.

a. For non-IPR holders:

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

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

Acquire the candidate.

b. For IPR holders:

Audit the current IPR holder’s patent portfolios.

Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology and standards.

Review the current published applications pending in USPTO.

Select the candidate.


2. Development

Investigate embodiments that can support the rewriting of existing claim.

Construct the new claims considering the prosecution history.

Analyze for invalidity and design around.

Prosecute for patent granting with new claims.


3. Monetization.


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


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

Samsung Patents for Apple Lawsuit: Is US 7706348 an Essential Patent for 3G Smartphone?

US 7706348, titled “Apparatus And Method For Encoding/Decoding Transport Format Combination Indicator In CDMA Mobile Communication System”, is one of key patents that is used to sue Apple. Recently, Apple claimed that Samsung violated FRAND commitments specified in ETSI’s IPR policy.

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 3G Smartphone product is implemented following the standard specifications, it should infringe some essential patents.

US 7706348 relates to an encoder for transmitting a transport format combination indicator (TFCI). It is based on Samsung’s proposed TFCI coding scheme, which is a part of TS 25.212 specification during the 3GPP’s standardization process. Even if the proposal was not accepted as a standard, it is widely adopted by Smartphone manufactures.

The issue is whether a patent proposed during a standardization process, but not specified in the standards, could be an essential patent.


©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

Wireless Patent Investment Check List

Following check list for wireless patent investment is based on TechIPm's consulting for Wall Street.

1. Check for the products that is covered by a patent.

Whether it is related to

consumer products:
semiconductor chips/modules, devices (dongle, modem), handheld devices (cell phone, smartphone, PDA), computing devices (PDA, netbook, laptop, desktop); or

infrastructure products:
Mobile base station including relay/femtocell, core networks; or

application products.


2. Check for the technology that is covered by a patent.

Whether it is related to

OFDM/MIMO for LTE or WiMAX or WiFi (802.11n) or WRAN (802.22)
(e.g. Can WiMAX patents of Adaptix (Acacia paied $160 M) also be applied to LTE?); or

handover for CDMA or WCDMA or LTE.


3. Check for the patent quality

Whether it is

high potential to be issued if it is an application; or

stable against invalidity claims; or

formation of patent portfolio.


4.Check for the money making power

Whether it is

essential patent; or

widely accepted as an essential for product implementation

(e.g. How many InterDigital's patents are really valuable?); or

related to a market which is in growth phase.

For more information about TechIPm's consulting services, please contact Alex Lee (alexglee@techipm.com).


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

Wireless/Mobile Patent Analysis Methodology

Contents

I. Patent Landscaping
II. Essentiality
III. Portfolio Evaluation
IV. Valuation
V. Acquisition Feasibility Analysis
VI. Essential Patent Development

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/wirelessmobile-patent-analysis-methodology

Wireless Patent Acquisition Feasibility Analysis

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 .

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

http://www.techipm.com/

Wireless Patent Auditing for Essential Portfolio Evaluation and Development

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/