Wireless/Mobile Patent Analysis Methodology

ContentsI. Patent LandscapingII. EssentialityIII. Portfolio EvaluationIV. ValuationV. Acquisition Feasibility AnalysisVI. Essential Patent Development©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 2

1. Patent LandscapingSince the United States is such a large market for products and services fromnearly all technology innovations, a patent counting for key IPR holders inpatenting over a period of times and distribution across technology areas canbe a good measuring tool for monitoring the evolution of technologyinnovations.RFID Innovation FrontlineTMRFID Innovation FrontlineTM is a research report on the technology innovationslandscape for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).RFID Innovation FrontlineTM utilizes patent information to assess the state ofthe art for technology innovations in RFID.RFID Innovation FrontlineTM analyzes the utility patents issued in the UnitedStates (US). Since the patent information are changed over time, this reportonly reflects the technology innovations landscape up to the time the analysis isconducted.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 4

1. Patent Landscaping -2RFID Innovation FrontlineTM is based on the statistical and analytical methodsfor mining patent information.Research for RFID Innovation FrontlineTM is done by an expert both inintellectual property (IP) and technology subject matter.RFID Innovation FrontlineTM can be used by customers for:•Trend analysis for RFID technology/product/market forecasting•Planning RFID technology/business strategy•Competitive Intelligence for RFID industry•IP strategy for RFID R&D•Opportunity analysis for RFID technology licensingLTE-Advanced Patents Landscape 4Q 2011To find the key IPR holders for LTE-Advanced patents, a keyword search of theUSPTO patent data base has been performed.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 5

1. Patent Landscaping -3More than 500 published patent applications and issued patents classified bykey 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 tothe case of 3.9G LTE patents landscape, there are new key players that werenot in 3.9G LTE: Innovative Sonic and HTC. Especially, Innovative Sonic is aTaiwanese NPE that sued RIM in 2010 for 3G mobile technology.Ref. "LTE-Advanced Patents Data for Key Technologies“NFC Patents for Standards & Applications 4Q 2011To find the key IPR holders for NFC patents, a keyword search of the USPTOpatent data base has been performed. Total of 729 patents (588 publishedpatent applications) are identified as of Oct. 31, 2011.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 6

1. Patent Landscaping -4The Key IPR holders are American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America,Broadcom, First Data, Innovision Research & Technology, IBM, InsideContactless, LG, MasterCard, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sony (includingSony Ericsson), NTT DoCoMo, NXP, Oberthur Technologies, Qualcomm,Renesas Technology, RIM, Samsung, Sprint, and STMicroelectronics.The identified NFC patents are classified by industry standard for NFCtechnology (under development by the NFC Forum) and major NFCapplications. The NFC Forum standard specifications included in the analysisare Activity, Digital, Protocol, LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), NDEF (DataExchange Format), RF/Analog, RTD (Record Type Definition), and TagOperation. The major NFC applications included in the analysis are NFC deviceand 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 areidentified as the top NFC application.Ref. "NFC Patents Data for Standards and Applications"©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 7

2. Essentiality AnalysisAn essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims thatare infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardizedtechnology. Thus, if a product is implemented following the standardspecifications, it should infringe some essential patents.LTE Essential Patent Candidates 3Q 2011To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of theUSPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent datain the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPROnline 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 findessential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards.To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim anddetail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the3GPP Release 8 technical specifications.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 9

2. Essentiality Analysis -2Total 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).Ref. LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data:LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data is the TechIPms product based on LTEpatents 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.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 10

3. Patent Portfolio EvaluationMethodology:1. What is the quality of the patent portfolio?2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the patent portfolio?3. Who are the best candidate for mobile business acquisition consideringthe business integration and/or compatibility?4. What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides patent portfolio evaluationservice for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition.LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 12

3. Patent Portfolio Evaluation -21. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technologyin 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, SpatialMultiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Coding (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, and HARQ. Key technology componentsfor 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, andMobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 13

3. Patent Portfolio Evaluation -3Evaluate the level of essentialityEssentiality Index (EI): E1 : Patent disclosure is weakly related to LTE technicalspecifications E2 : Patent disclosure is partially related to LTE technicalspecifications E3 : Patent disclosure is related to LTE technical specificationsoverall E4.2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. Nokia v. Motorola) bytechnology.Answer for what critical holes in patent landscape are there to be filled & whohas patent portfolio to fill those holes.3. Who are the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering thebusiness integration and/or compatibility?4. What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 14

4. LTE Patent Portfolio ValuationMethodology:1. Auditing for the complete set of LTE patent portfolios.To find the key LTE patent portfolios, a keyword search of the USPTO patentdata base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists ofpatents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online websiteis also included.2. Evaluation of the LTE patent portfolioPortfolio quality evaluation:Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technologyin the standard specifications Key technology components for animplementation of the LTE baseband modem and LTE radio protocol.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 16

4. LTE Patent Portfolio Valuation -2Essentiality 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 Nortels and Motorolaspatent deals.4. Strengths/weaknesses of a particular IPR holders LTE patent portfolio.•Interesting LTE IPR holders: InterDigital, RIM, Nokia, TI, Qualcomm,Samsung, LG, Ericsson, ZTE©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 17

4. LTE Patent Portfolio Valuation -35. Valuation of the LTE patent portfolio.Calculate the value of a particular IPR holders LTE patent portfolio using the the base value utilizing the portfolios quality factors.*In recent Jefferies & Cos 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.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 18

5. Patent Acquisition Feasibility AnalysisMethodology:1. Acquisition subject matter selection and patent landscapingReview the current market demand (including patent lawsuits) for selectingacquisition 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.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 20

5. Patent Acquisition Feasibility Analysis -22. Candidate selection and patent marketability evaluation:Based on assignee’s business situation, select the possible acquisitioncandidate.Investigate the marketability of the candidate:market valuationbusiness integration and/or compatibilitypotential risks considering the possible patent lawsuitsTechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides acquisition feasibilityanalysis service for wireless patents.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 21

6. Essential Patent DevelopmentMethodology:1. Auditing for the complete set of essential patent candidates:Review the current USPTO database published and issued by a specificassignee.Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technologyand 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.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 23

6. Essential Patent Development -23. 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.5. Rewrite the claimsTechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides wireless patent auditing andessential patent development services.©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 24

Wireless/Mobile Patent Analysis Methodology

by Alex Lee on Feb 02, 2012

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