WPAN (Bluetooth & Zigbee) Patents for Standard Ranking

As the number of patent applications is a good measure of innovation activities, to evaluate the WPAN (Bluetooth including Bluetooth LE and Zigbee) technology innovation activities, more than 2000 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, Link Management etc.) for the IEEE 802.15.1, IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth Core 2 – 4 standard specifications.

More than 290 issued patents are identified as the key patents for the IEEE 802.15.1,  IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth Core 2 – 4 standard specifications as of 1Q 2015. Among 82 IPR holders, Broadcom is the leader followed by Samsung Electronics, Nokia, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Philips, Ericsson, Intel, BlackBerry, ETRI and Sony.

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

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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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

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Internet of Things Standard Essential Patents Global IPR Governance 1Q 2014

TechIPm, LLC’s Internet of Things (IoT) standard essential patents research for the US and EU market of NFC, UHF RFID and Zigbee for wireless sensor networks identified total of 380 issued patents in the USPTO and EPO as the potential candidates for IoT standard essential patents as of January 31, 2014.

To evaluate the essentiality of a IoT patent, patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each NFC patent is compared to the latest versions of NFC Forum’s standard specifications (Activity, Digital, Protocol, LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), NDEF (Data Exchange Format), RF/Analog, RTD (Record Type Definition), Connection Handover, and Tag Operation) and ISO/IEC 18092 – 2004; UHF RFID patent is compared to ISO/IEC 18000-C; and Zigbee patent is compared to IEEE 802.15.4-2006.

Among 84 IPR shareholders, NXP is the leader followed by ZIH (Zebra), Intermec, Symbol (Motorola Solutions), Broadcom (Innovision), Sony, Atmel, Round Rock and Samsung.

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

©2014 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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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.


©2011 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
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Zigbee for M2M Patent Landscape 1Q 2011

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
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Global Zigbee Patent Portfolios Analysis

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/