Internet of Things (IoT) Strategic Patent Development and Monetization 1Q 2016

©2016 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com
Internet of Things (IoT)
StrategicPatent Development & Monetization
1Q 2016
Alex G. Lee (alexglee@techipm.com)

©2016 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 2
1. New Patent Development Opportunity Analysis ……..…………………... 3
2. Patent Preparation & Prosecution Strategy ………..……………………... 23
3. Patent Development Exploiting Existing Patents …..………………….... 33
4. Monetization Exploiting Strategically Packaged Patent Portfolio ... 36
5. Development of Strategically Packaged Patent Portfolio ….………... 39
A1. IoT Business Model ……………………………………….….…………………... 43
A2. IoT Frontiers Insights from Patents …………………….…………………... 46
A3. IoT Patent Disputes Risk Assessment ………………...…………………... 58
A4. Patents with Monetizing DNA ……………..……………...…………………... 60
Contents

1. New Patent Development Opportunity Analysis
White Space Analysis
One can identify new patent development opportunity (“white space”) that can
lead to new product/service development through the patent landscape analysis.
Following illustrates an example patent landscape analysis for the IoT smart
home applications.
Many high tech business leaders are now competing in the IoT smart home
market by providing innovative products/services such as Samsung SmartThings
and Apple HomeKit. Patent information can provide insights regarding the state
of the art of the IoT innovations for smart home applications such as home
automation, energy/utility management, home security, lighting system and
safety monitoring (e.g., hazard detecting, elderly care).

1. New Patent Development Opportunity Analysis -2
White Space Analysis -2
To find the white spaces in the IoT smart home applications, more than 1000
published patent applications and issued patents in the USPTO that are related
to the smart home applications are reviewed. More 400 patent applications are
selected as the key patents for the IoT smart home applications. In number of
patent applications, Google (including Nest Lab) and Samsung Electronics
dominate the patent applications (nearly 30% of the total patent applications
among more than 70 patent owners). Samsung Electronics patent application is
highly focused on the home automation. Google patent application is focused
on the home energy/utility management and safety monitoring.

Following figure shows the patent landscape of the IoT smart home applications.
As can be seen in the figure, the home automation is clouded by significant
number of patent applications owned by many market leaders such as
Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and General Electric. The energy/utility
management is also clouded by a large number of patent applications owned by
several key market leaders such as Google and Honeywell.

In-depth analysis of each patent reviles that most of the patent applications are
for the incremental innovations of the current market products/services.
Only 14% of the total patent applications are for the innovations of the potential
new innovative products/services:
Adaptable Autonomous Smart Home System
Self-Aware Self-Healing Smart Home System;
Artificial Intelligence including Deep Learning Applications;
Augmented Reality;
Cloud/Big Data/SaaS;
Robots;
New UX for Smart Home System;
Audio & Video Analytics; Cross-industry;
Convergence; and
Emotion-Aware Smart Home System.

Cross-competitor Analysis
Specific patent development subject matters that can cover the new IoT products
/services in alignment with competitive advantage/differentiation strategy can be
found from the cross-competitor analysis.
The goal of the cross-competitor analysis is to enable one to simplify predictions
of competitors’ moves and countermoves when multiple competitors are involved
Through the cross-competitor analysis, one can understand that: Competitors’
behavior when there are several significant competitors; Paradigm shifts in
industries undergoing rapid change or transition; Entry of new competitors into
the competitive landscape; Future directions in strategic move among industry
contenders. The strategic map is a tool used in the cross-competitor analysis for
visualizing the competitive landscape: A chart for a strategic parameter No.1
(e.g. product/service portfolio, distribution channel etc.) vs. a strategic parameter
No.2 (e.g. product/service price, quality, brand etc.).

Cross-competitor Analysis -2
Following illustrates an example cross-competitor analysis for the augmented
reality (AR) technology innovations.
To do the cross-competitor analysis for the AR, US patent published applications
and issued patents of Magic Leap, Microsoft and Samsung that are related to the
AR are reviewed for identifying patents that cover the key AR technology
innovations: Electro-Optical System, Tracking & Rendering, Mapping &
Localization, UI, UX, and Application (e.g., LBS, retail, automotive, medical,
robotics, gaming application). Total of 289 Magic Leap, Microsoft and Samsung
patents are selected for the AR cross-competitor analysis. The key AR patens of
Magic Leap, Microsoft and Samsung account about 15% of total key AR patents
in the US as of Feb. 11, 2016.

Following figure shows the Activity Index vs. technology innovations strategic
map for Magic Leap, Microsoft and Samsung. The size of the circle represents
the total number of the patents for each technology innovation. Activity Index is
a measure of a company’s relative technology innovation activities in a specific
technology innovation field: Activity Index = share of a specific innovation sub-
class in a company/share of a company’s patent in total patents, where share of
a specific innovation sub-class in a company = patents (innovation sub-class)/
patents (a company) and share of a company’s patent in total patents = patents
(a company)/patents (total companies).
The map clearly shows each company’s competitive advantage in the
Key AR technology innovations.

Scenarios Analysis
Specific patent development subject matters that can cover the new IoT
products/services further can be found from scenarios analysis.
The scenarios analysis can show potential interactions between the future user
and the IoT product/service via the specific usage of the product/service and
behavior of the user under environments provided by the product functionality.
The scenarios analysis exploiting patent information can provide the new
IoT product concept (e.g., specific benefits to the user, product design, product
functionality and the technology for the product).

Smart Home Scenarios Development
• The first step in the scenario development is to do patent search and
review for the state of the art of IoT innovation for smart home applications.
The searched patents that are related to the smart home applications should
be analyzed to find the measurable user benefits provided by the value
propositions (automation, energy management, care, safety, entertainment)
and method/device/system to offer the value propositions.
• Then, develop a story of the future implementations of the state of the art
of IoT innovation for smart home applications exploiting 5W1H –
Who, When, Where, What, Why, How.

Smart Home Scenarios Development -2
• The stakeholders (users) in the scenario for the IoT smart home are usually
the member of home who can be specified by age, gender, profession.
The time can be the morning, afternoon, evening.
The place can be the bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen and outside.
• Then, describe how the specific product (including system) that is
implemented based on the patent disclosures performs (interacts with a user)
to provide each value proposition under the circumstances for a specific
purpose (expectations of the product’s future user or solutions for product’s
future user’s problems). Base on the developed scenarios, potential
improvements over the implemented product can be devised by listing new
product features, functionality, UI/UX, integration method etc.

• Followings summarize the key elements of the IoT smart home scenarios
for each value proposition.
• Home Automation
The smart home product should determine how to solve user’s problem or
perform for a specific situation without constant guidance from the user.
The smart home product should adapt to changing situation/environment.
The smart home product should react properly to the changing
situation/environment in accordance with the performance objectives.
The smart home product should join the home networks without user’s
manual configuration.

• Home Energy Management
The smart home product should adapt the overall energy efficiency of the
home to the comfort and quality of life.
The smart home product should control the home heating for reducing
energy consumption while ensuring comfort.
The smart home product should control lighting based on user’s presence
and environment.
• Home Care
The smart home product should proactively act for caring the user under
the environment/situation on behalf of the user.
The smart home product should provide UI/UX depend on the user context.

• Home Safety
The smart home product should provide private space protection and
control against hazard home environment.
The smart home product should measure of gas, carbon monoxide, fire,
smoke, water and weather conditions.
The smart home product should provide remote access to home
environment.
• Home Entertainment
The smart home product should provide personalize entertainment to
the user.
The smart home product should exploit semantic information regarding
the home entertainment devices.

2020 IoT Scenarios
Following future scenarios are developed based on disclosures in the IoT
patents. The scenarios describe possible situations in 2020 that a person
will experience in his/her everyday life: home, highway, shopping mall,
business meeting and medical emergency situation. Scenarios can provide
several IoT business insights including the IoT products/services and
application business models development.
In the morning, at home
Alex, married with Janet and has two daughters Alice and Jenny, wakes up at 6
am with the morning call music Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione, one of his
favorites. Alex’s smart home system selects the Feels So Good for gloomy Friday
morning due to heavy clouds in the sky of Alex’s Boston home. The wake up time
and music were selected based on Alex’s personal profile for his favorite music,
his yesterday’s busy schedule and current weather condition sensed from his
front yard.

2020 IoT Scenarios -2
As Alex stands up, his closet doors are opened and LED lighting from the bottom
shins the sox that is match in color with his black coat for an important business
meeting in the afternoon. The smart home system operates the closet doors and
lightings depend on Alex’s position and movement. As Alex moves out from his
bed room and moves into the living room, smart TV is turned on and
automatically changes the TV channel for the traffic information. At that time,
Kitchen lights flick to signal to Alex that his breakfast is ready in the rice cooker.
As Alex finishes his breakfast, Roombo, a home serving robot, approaches and
asks him whether he had his subscription pills. When Alex has his medicine, he
takes the image of the pill and sends the image to his primary care doctor using
his smartphone.

On the way to shopping mall
On her way to nearby shopping mall, Janet hears a voice massage that she
needs to exit at the next to buy milk. The onboard screen in her car shows a map
for nearby shops with milk price if a shop is on sale. When Janet dozes off at the
wheel, the automated vehicle monitoring system changes her car to a self-driving
mode. As Janet drives her car at 75 mph at 55 mph speed limit highway, her car
smart control system automatically slows down. About 5 miles before the
shopping mall, her car slows down to a complete stop because her car receives
an accident notice from a car drives in the opposite direction. About 3 miles
before the shopping mall, Janet hears a traffic congestion voice massage near
the shopping mall exit.

The onboard screen in her car shows a map for alternative route to the shopping
mall. As Janet approaches the shopping mall, smart LED lights detects available
parking spaces, then directs her to them. When Janet enters into the shopping
mall, her smartphone receives indoor navigation guide maps, product information
and promotional advertisements. At a gift shop, Janet buys Alex’s birthday gift
and pays using her smartphone.
At the business meeting
Alex has a business meeting with John at Financial Building located in the
Boston downtown. As Alex arrives in front of Financial Building, he receives a
welcoming message of an access information service of Financial Building
(displayed on his smartphone). Alex then moves on to Conference Room 313
by being provided with a WiFi signal based location guidance through his
smartphone.

While Alex is moving to Conference Room 313, automatic authentication of all
doors located along the path may be realized, thereby allowing Alex to pass
through all doors in order to reach Conference Room 313. When Alex enters
Conference Room B, lights and lamps installed in the conference room are
automatically turned on, and operation of a ventilation system is initiated.
When John enters Conference Room 313, a projector is turned on, blinders of
the conference room windows are shut down, and the lights are turned off. Alex
discusses with John regarding the adoption of the smart inventory system that
utilizes the 3D printing system in John’s warehouse.

In the evening, at home
As Alex approaches his home the smart home system determines whether his
car network system is detected within a radius of 2 miles. When the car network
system is detected within the predetermined range, the smart home system
transmits parking information. The transmitted parking information is displayed
on the display unit in the car. Then, smart home system turns on the light in the
front door and changes the living room temperature at Alex’s most comfortable
temperature. While Alex is having a good evening time his smartphone notifies
him that his garage door is open and his electric vehicle is not charging.

2. Patent Preparation & Prosecution Strategy
Prior Arts Search
Even if the internet of things (IoT) gets a huge attention recently, the concept of
interconnected devices and connecting billions of devices to the internet in the
IoT is not new and has been researched for over 10 years. Thus, a large number
of non-patent prior arts including research papers and books can be existed.
Therefore, the intensive search of non-patent prior arts is needed for preparing
the IoT patent.
US20150019710 illustrates a good example case that intensive search of
non-patent prior arts is required. US20150019710 claims a method of
maintaining interoperability amongst IoT devices connected via an IoT
integration platform. The key elements of the claim 1 at issue are the
interoperable control rule based on the semantic label associated with a
user's IoT device.

2. Patent Preparation & Prosecution Strategy -2
Prior Arts Search -2
The USPTO rejected the claim 1 under the AIA 102(b) as being anticipated by
a non-patent prior art regarding the semantic interoperability on the web.
Semantic interoperability enables exchange of data among different web system.
The inventor argued that the semantic label in the non-patent prior associated
with a user's IoT device and amended claim to clarify the distinguished aspects
of the claim form the prior art. However, the USPTO rejected the claim again in
the final rejection based on newly founded non-patent prior art that explicitly
mentions the IoT device in the disclosure.

Claim Drafting for Maximum Quality & Value
When the IoT patent claims are drafted, several factors that can make the patent
high quality and value should be considered. The factors are (1) claim scope
and broadness, (2) value propositions of a claim’s novelty point (non-obvious
inventive departure from the prior arts), (3) claim mix (degree to which different
kind of statutory claim types (e.g. apparatus, process, manufactures,
composition) are used in a patent), (4) claim diversity (degree to which different
kind of claim formats (e.g. means-plus-function claim), terminology, arrangement
in a given statutory claim type (e.g. number or order of claim elements) are used
In a patent) and (5) claim setting (degree to which different kind of commercially
significant settings (e.g. component/system or transmitter/receiver) are used in
a patent).

Claim Drafting for Maximum Quality & Value -2
The features to be considered in the claim drafting to get the high quality and
value patents with the optimal quality to cost (efforts and time in addition to
monetary cost) ratio can be decided exploiting the insights for products/services
that is going to be covered by the patent (e.g. attributes of a product/service that
valued most by customers), the patent landscape to figure out the competitors’
patents (e.g. whether design around is required to avoid infringing competitors’
patents) and internal patenting process (including available patent budget).
For example, if a patent is going to use for excluding the competitors, the key
features to be considered in the claim drafting will be the claim diversity (to avoid
potential infringement loophole) and claim mix (to provide protection against
invalidation).

Claim Drafting for Maximum Quality & Value -3
The best practice in the IoT patent claims drafting is the Qualcomm patents
for the IoT connectivity. Total of 273 patents issued in the USPTO for the IoT
connectivity are reviewed. Following table summarizes the assessment.

Claim Drafting & Amendment under Post-Alice 101 Eligibility Test
The basic building blocks of the IoT are devices that can sense/recognize their
surrounding environments and communicate with other devices, connecting/
communicating network medium/infrastructure that can interconnect devices and
connect devices to the internet, back-end IT systems that can process
information (data) obtained by the IoT devices (e.g. cloud computing/big data
analytics) and provide the value added services exploiting the information.
Therefore, a part or whole of data aggregation, data transfer, data correlation,
data analysis and services based on the data are the essential elements of the
IoT inventions, and thus, the elements of the IoT patent claims. Consequently,
many of IoT patents can be identified as abstract ideas because they are the
certain methods of organizing human activities/mental process or fundamental
economic practices or mathematical relationships/formulas unless the IoT patent
claims are drafted carefully to pass the post-Alice 101 patent eligibility test.

Claim Drafting & Amendment under Post-Alice 101 Eligibility Test -2
For example, claim 1 in US20140012945 claimed: A method of automatically
detecting issues and facilitating the transmission of alert messages in a home
network consisting of a plurality of consumer electronic devices coupled to a
service node, the method comprising: storing information regarding home
entities in an inventory database, the entities comprising the household,
one or more users within the household, devices in the household, applications
running on the devices, and a community of which the household is included;
defining usage classes for each entity, the usage classes denoting a primary
function associated with an entity, and comprising networking, productivity,
and entertainment; assigning an index value to each usage class for each
entity, the index value comprising an integer value within a fixed range, and
reflecting a relative level of satisfaction associated with the entity for each
respective usage class; monitoring data regarding usage trends, performance
characteristics, and external variables associated with the entities;

modifying one or more of the index values based on the monitored data; and
facilitating the transmission of messages regarding services or products related
to the entities of the home from one or more parties, wherein the messages are
conformed to index values.
This claim was rejected under 101 by the USPTO because the claim is directed
towards the abstract idea: storing data regarding entities, classifying entities,
assigning index values, monitoring usage data, modifying the index values and
transmitting messages regarding services or products related to the entities
based on index values. Thus, simply transferring the data through the networks
or processed the data for providing services will not sufficient to transform the
nature of the claimed invention into a patent-eligible claim. Additional elements
that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea are
needed.

Potential claim elements that can overcome the reject may be the claim
elements that embed/link to a specific machine/article (not a generic purpose
computer) (e.g. medical device, thermostat, application specific
microprocessor/controller) or that either recite a specific series of steps that
resulted in a departure from a human activity or transform a particular thing to
a different thing or improve the technology.

Patent Disclosure Drafting & Prosecution in Alignment with Business
Strategy
The IoT patents should support future development of the IoT businesses and
commercial implementations of the IoT innovations. The disclosures of the IoT
patent can be considered as a system that is consist of the basic building blocks
of the IoT as a subsystem: (1) devices that can sense/recognize their
surrounding environments and communicate with other devices, (2) connecting
/communicating network medium/infrastructure that can interconnect devices and
connect devices to the internet, (3) back-end IT systems that can process
information (data) obtained by the IoT devices (e.g. cloud computing/big data
analytics) and (4) provide the value added services exploiting the information.
Then, the system as a whole and each basic building block as a subsystem can
be construed in the disclosures to support future development of IoT businesses
and commercial implementations of the IoT innovations.

3. Patent Development Exploiting Existing Patents
Well-tailored value creation methodology combined with patent prosecution
strategy can develop new patent portfolios for maximum ROI from existing
patents. Many patent applications and newly issued patents can be further
developed for creating new values by amending and creating claims and
generating family patents to encompass emerging technology and
products/services trends, market demands, and strategic exploitation goals
(e.g., cross-licensing, monetization etc.).
Even if the IoT gets a huge attention recently, the concept of interconnected
devices and connecting billions of devices to the internet in the IoT is not new
and has been researched for over 10 years. Thus, there may be a large number
of patents (that were not intended for the specific IoT applications at the time of
invention) that can be exploited for developing new IoT patents supporting
current and future IoT business goals.

3. Patent Development Exploiting Existing Patents -2
Existing patents can be reviewed for finding new IoT patents development
opportunities. The good candidates for new IoT patent development can be
categorized as application specific and standard relevant patents for further
development.
For the application specific IoT patents, the selected patents can be analyzed
to find candidates for commercial essential patents (essential for commercial
product/service implementation), patents for market platforms (dominant
designs), and patents for disruptive technologies (for future market generation
potential). Existing claims can be amended and additional claims can be
constructed to capture the unclaimed embodiments in the candidates’
detail descriptions to reinforce the protectability (against invalidation),
enforceability (against potential infringement), and marketability
(for monetization, new products/services development etc.).

3. Patent Development Exploiting Existing Patents -3
For the standard relevant IoT patents (e.g., IoT platform connectivity), the
selected patents can be analyzed to find candidates for the IoT standard
essential patents (SEPs) and development as the IoT SEPs with respect to
the specific standards. For the IoT SEPs candidates, the claim-standard
specification mapping can be performed to generate EoU claim charts.
For the development candidates as SEPs, the model claims can be constructed
which can make a candidate as a IoT SEP with respect to a specific standard.
Additional claims can be constructed to capture the unclaimed embodiments
in the candidates’ detail descriptions.

4. Monetization Exploiting Strategically
Packaged Patent Portfolio
A strategically packaged patent portfolio is the collection of patents such that the
integrated value propositions of each patent of the portfolio is the value
propositions that are provided by new products/services. The strategically
packaged patent portfolio can be used for monetization through patent sale,
patent licensing, commercialization, spin-off, patent banking, and financing.
Foe example, Zetta Research Development LLC is an IP management
company that acquires, develops and sells patent portfolios from patent holders
(startups, inventors, investors and lenders). Zetta finds patent holders that have
potentially valuable patents and helps patent holders to develop and sell the
patent portfolios that will be valuable for a specific emerging business.
Patents are assigned into a special purpose holding entity. Zetta’s equity-based
investment exploits the fund it manages. Rather than relying on the litigation
enforcement, Zetta seeks to sell the portfolios to the strategic buyers at the
time when market conditions are most advantageous.

Packaged Patent Portfolio -2
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) is the North American arm of
the corporate R&D organization of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
MERL conducts application motivated basic research and advanced
development. Total of 1000 MERL issued patents and published patent
applications are reviewed for finding the good candidates for strategically
packaged patent portfolio.
MERL patents covered several IoT related applications: Wireless & Optical
Communications (IoT Connectivity), Power Distribution System (Smart Grids),
Vehicle Control/Information System (Connected Cars), Electronic Devices
(IoT Sensors) and Building Automation (Smart Home).

Packaged Patent Portfolio -3
Through the IoT application motivated analysis for the IoT related patents, the
strategically packaged patent portfolio regarding the IoT connected electric car
can be formed. The strategically packaged patent portfolio consists of 23
patents that cover the Intelligent Driver/ Navigation Support System,
Safety/Collision Avoidance System, Vehicular Networks, Autonomous
Driving System, Voice Control System, and Wireless Charging System.

5. Development of Strategically Packaged
Patent Portfolio
Strategically packaged patent portfolio development in alignment with the
specific IoT business interests (e.g., smart home automation) requires deep
understating of the IoT technologies, insights for the emerging
IoT products/services/business models, and extensive experiences in
patent analysis and development.
Followings illustrate examples of strategically packaged patent portfolio for
IoT emerging products.

Patent Portfolio -2
Smart Driver Assistant
US20150149042 illustrates a connected car system that can provide
user-specific preferences based on user profile information provided by the
mobile devices. The vehicle controller can implement user-specific preferences
stored in association with the detected mobile device. Preferences can include
seat adjustments, temperature controls, mirror adjustments, music settings, and
other similar adjustable vehicle features. US20140063064 illustrates a method
of providing information about a predetermined external vehicle using an
augmented reality displaying method by mapping the actual image of the
external vehicle with a map. The smart driver assistant can provide a map for
alternative route to a specific destination when traffic congestion is expected as
illustrated in US20150170522.

Patent Portfolio -3
Intelligent Personal Assistant
Intelligent personal assistant can help you in your everyday life.
US20150237470 illustrates a system for providing location-based services
triggered by a personal geofence. A mobile device can determine that a venue
located at a geographic location and frequently visited by the mobile device in
the past is associated with a particular item, service, or activity. Using past
behavior patterns and a current location, the mobile device can determine a
condition to trigger execution of an application program or display of certain
content using the 3D holographic projections as illustrated in US 20150220058.
The condition can be personalized to match a life style of a user of the mobile
device. As the shopping mall, the intelligent personal assistant directs you to the
available parking space and guides you to the specific shopping place as

Patent Portfolio -4
As illustrated in US20150169659, the intelligent personal assistant can be
automatically generate your daily exercise plan.
The intelligent personal assistant monitors and stores your health related data
and provides alerts and notifications to you and your healthcare providers as

A1. IoT Business Model
A business model is the way in which a company makes money through its
business. The key building blocks of a business model are the value
propositions, profit model, and business resources.
The key building blocks of business models for the IoT applications can be
summarized as follows.
A. Business Resources
• IoT devices: Devices that can sense/recognize their surrounding
environments (including position/movement/identification) and communicate
with other devices
• Networks: Connecting/communicating medium/infrastructure that can
interconnect devices and connect devices to the internet
• IT systems: Back-end or embedded systems that can process information
(data) obtained by the IoT devices (e.g. cloud computing/big data analytics) and
provide the value added services exploiting the information

A1. IoT Business Model -2
B. Value Propositions
• Automation: Providing various automation services for the customers’ job
to be done (e.g., order the out of stock product automatically; self-driving car)
• Care: Caring for customers (e.g., monitor person’ s body status and provide
various health care services; control customer’s home cooling and heating/
lighting system for energy savings)
• Business/Industry Intelligence: Providing better working/production
tools/environments (e.g., analyze customers’ shopping behavior for proactive
promotion/advertisement; industrial assets management)
• Entertainment: Providing fun to customers (e.g., augmented reality games)

A1. IoT Business Model -3
C. Profit Model
• Device/IT system sales with value added services
• Subscription fees
• After-market sales (e.g. part sales)
• Third-party sales (e.g. advertisement)
Combing the key building blocks, various business models for the IoT
applications can be developed.

A2. IoT Frontiers Insights from Patents
Smart Home Security
US20150120598 illustrates the smart home system for tracking delivery of a
package by a delivery service-provider entity. The smart home system detects
delivery data associated with the delivery of the package to the smart home. The
detected delivery data comprises information indicative of the identity of the
deliverer and the package at a particular time, and an action of the deliverer and
the particular receiver of the package.
The smart home system also can receive and retain package in a secure location
that is trusted by both deliverer and a system user. For example, a certain secure
area of environment can be temporarily made accessibly by the system to
deliverer such that deliverer can deposit package within the secure area for later
retrieval by the intended recipient. The secure area can be a lobby secured by a
smart doorknob. The system unlocks the lobby door for granting deliverer
temporary access to that lobby for depositing package.

A2. IoT Frontiers Insights from Patents -2
Smart Home Audio and Video Analytics
US20150364028 illustrates a smart home security system for detecting the home
premise condition using audio analytics. Sounds (e.g., sound of doorbell,
sound of breaking glass, or sound of baby crying) occurring on or near the
premise can be detected and analyzed whether the sound belongs to a
recognized class of sounds (e.g., security, health condition, property damage).
In response to the analysis, the system performs tasks that are responsive to the
detected sounds (e.g., sending messages to law enforcement or medical
personnel).
US20150194034 illustrates a system for monitoring an incapacitated person
(e.g., unable to move or respond) in the monitored area using video analytics.
The system processes captured images to detect an anomaly when a person
becomes ill and incapacitated (e.g., sharp movements representing a fall). When
such anomalies are detected, a notification can be transmitted to another location
indicating that medical assistance is needed.

Smart Home Robots
Have you ever dreamed about future that your favorite food is ready
automatically when you feel hungry? US20150290795 indicates a possibility by
combing robotics and artificial intelligence. US20150290795 illustrates the
computerized robotic food preparation system for food preparation by digitizing
the food preparation process of professional and non-professional chef dishes
and subsequently replicating a chef's cooking movements, processes and
techniques with real-time electronic adjustments.
US20140207282 illustrates a household robot that can take care of your home.
The household robot can monitor the state of a home, clean the home and turn
on/off various appliances for you automatically and transmit the surveillance
data to you in an emergency condition detected by the robot. As illustrated in
US20150224640 the household robot even can take care of your health.

Ambient Intelligence for Smart Living
Ambient intelligence (AmI) is the smart environments that the IoT devices
support people in carrying out their everyday life activities.
US20150057808 illustrates AmI for smart home applications. The smart home
AmI discovers and recognizes patterns using sensors in resident behavior and
generates adaptive automation rules for controlling the IoT devices based on
the patterns and exploiting the machine learning (machine learning refers to
intelligent systems that can learn from data, rather than merely follow explicit
programmed instructions).
US20140108307 illustrates AmI for the connected car applications. Base on the
profile and contextual information, AmI provides suggestions to the driver
exploiting the machine learning. For example, AmI obtains contextual information
indicating that a contact of the driver is only a few minutes in driving time from
the driver’s route.

Self-aware Self-healing IoT
Billions of interconnected devices that are connected to the internet should be
self-aware and self-healing: Self-Aware Self-Healing IoT is concerned with
systems that can auto-detect, analyze, and fix any issue with the IoT devices
and networks without human intervention.
Deployment of significant numbers of lighting devices with associated controllers
and/or sensors and networking in smart cities presents increasing challenges for
set-up and management of the system elements and network communication
elements of the lighting system. US20150250042 illustrates the system of
networked intelligent lighting devices that provides autonomous discovery and
set-up at installation. The system also can provide autonomous detection of
failure and fix of the failure.

Deep Learning
Deep learning is a machine learning method that attempts to learn layered
models of inputs that mimics the human brain’s reasoning process. The layers
correspond to distinct levels of concepts where higher-level concepts are derived
from lower-level concepts (hierarchy of complex concepts that are constructed
out of simpler concepts).
US20150294422 illustrates the deep learning application for dynamic risk
management in the IoT connected cars. The deep learning correlates the
driver's usage patterns, driving styles, weather conditions, traffic or interaction
with the vehicle based on a priori knowledge of how normalized driver data sets
behave to predict potential driving risk dynamically. Real time data are provided
using the vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)
communications.

Emotion-Aware IoT
An individual's mental state is important to general well-being and effective
decision making. Mental states include a wide range of emotions and
experiences from happiness to sadness, from contentedness to worry, or from
excitation to calm. US20140200463 illustrates the emotion-aware IoT
applications by determining well-being status from an analysis of facial
information and physiological information of an individual. By monitoring the
well-being status of an individual, the home lighting can adjust it while turning on
the favorites music automatically when a person stressed.
US20130054090 illustrates the emotion-aware IoT application for providing the
safe driving service system by analyzing information necessary for cognizing
emotion on the basis of bio signals sensed by in-vehicle sensors.

Adaptable Autonomous IoT
US20150019714 illustrates the adaptable autonomous smart home system.
The adaptable autonomous smart home system can recognize the contextual
or semantic profiling of a person or place or devices (physical environment)
based on sensed data by the IoT devices. The adaptable autonomous smart
home system determines particular interpretation instructions (define particular
IoT device control rules) that are associated with the particular physical
environment and dynamically updates the control rules for changing physical
environment.

Augmented Reality
US20150347850 illustrates an IoT AR (Augmented Reality) application in
a smart home. A smart home IoT device communicates via a local network to a
user AR device (e.g., smartphone) for providing the tracking data. The tracking
data describes the smart home IoT device. The AR devices can recognize the
smart home IoT device in the camera view based on the tracking data.
Once the smart home IoT device is identified in the camera view, the AR
application can augment the camera view with additional information and control
interface about the smart home IoT device. The user can control the smart home
IoT device using the AR device.
US20140063064 illustrates an IoT AR application in a connected car. An AR
head-up display in the connected car displays the overlaying a virtual image
regarding the surrounding environmental information on an actual image of the
external vehicle that is observed through the transparent display. The surrounding
environmental information are obtained via the V2X communication system.

IoT SaaS
Cloud based software as a service (SaaS) enables cost effective value added
services for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as smart home,
connected healthcare and preventive maintenance of industrial equipment.
US20130227569 illustrates the system that can gather data from thousands of
the IoT sensors/devices and analyze the data without the massive amount of
investment in the server and big data analytics infrastructure.
US20150227118 illustrates the cloud based IoT SaaS system for facilitating
automatic control of the smart home devices based on past device behavior,
current device events, sensor data, and/or server-sourced data.

Industrial IoT
US20150040051 illustrates the industrial monitoring system that provides
monitoring capabilities for various types of industrial machines and systems.
For example, the industrial monitoring system can monitor operational
parameters of the gas turbine system using a number of sensors.
US20140163763 illustrates the energy management system exploiting the
predictive analytics. Utility companies are experiencing a shortage of electrical
generating capacity due to increasing customer demand for electricity.
The energy management system predicts on-peak hours and/or off-peak hours
based on data obtained from various monitoring devices using the predictive
analytics.

Convergence
US20120120930 illustrates a vehicle network system interconnected with a
home network. When a predetermined request signal is transmitted from the
vehicle network system to the home network, the home network performs an
operation corresponding to the request signal. The home network determines
whether the vehicle network system is detected within a predetermined range.
The home network may include a RFID system to detect the presence of the
vehicle network system. When the vehicle network system is detected within
the predetermined range, the home network transmits parking information
with respect to the vehicle equipped with the vehicle network. The transmitted
parking information can then be displayed on the display unit in the vehicle.

A3. IoT Patent Disputes Risk Assessment
As we have seen in the smartphone market development, it is expected that the
super-competition to occupy the leadership in the lucrative IoT market can
lead to another round of patent wars. The post-smartphone patent wars,
however, will be more extensive because of more extensive participation of
players across several different industries. The post-smartphone patent wars will
also be more complex because of the recent rapid change in legal environment
and the learning curve from the smartphone patent wars.
• A large number of patents owned by commercially unsuccessful companies
can be the potential patent disputes risk (e.g., smart home).
• A large number of patents owned by the patent monetizing entities is a
potential patent disputes risk (e.g., connected car, IoT connectivity).
• A large number of patents owned by entities from different industries is a
potential patent disputes risk (e.g., connected car, connected health).

A3. IoT Patent Disputes Risk Assessment -2
IoT Patent Wars 2020 Scenarios

A4. Patents with Monetizing DNA
Even though there were so many patents that were issued up to now, however,
the number of patents that were commercially exploited and monetized
successfully was very small. This is similar to the situation that, even if there
were so many innovators and entrepreneurs, only small numbers achieved
commercial success from their ideas.
In “The Innovator's DNA”, the authors identified the code of successful
innovators that distinguishes them from others based on the case study of well
known successful innovators such as Steve Jobses and Jeff Bezoses. The key
lesson from the research of the innovator’s DNA was that the successful
innovators’ DNA is not simply genetic traits endowed, but that they can be
developed. Then, by the analogy, one can ask similar questions for patent:
What make the monetizing patents different?;
Can we find the code of the monetizing patents?;
Can we identify and develop the monetizing patents?

A4. Patents with Monetizing DNA -2
Monetizing patents protect the market for commercially successful products/
services from competitors. Monetizing patents can be exploited as financial/
investment assets or through licensing to other parties for additional cash flow.
Followings are the monetizing patent’s DNA uncovered from the case study of
carefully selected monetizing patents through the integrated technology, legal
and business analysis.
Monetizing patents solve the right technological problem
The right technological problem is a problem in great needs of improved/
innovative solution;
The right technological problem is recognized well in an industry;
The right technological problem leads to a solution that has great business
impacts;
The solution of the right technological problem follows the correct evolutionally
pass for emerging technology.

Monetizing patents practice value innovation
Monetizing patents provide unique value proposition with maximum market
protection;
Monetizing patents provide values to customers without additional cost/pain or
infrastructure/process change requirements.
Monetizing patents actively participate in the business ecosystem
Monetizing patents can be a platform or integrated into a platform;
Monetizing patents form a dominant design or industry standard;
Monetizing patents form diverse value chains;
Monetizing patents derive the value for M&A.

Monetizing patents are legal savvy
Monetizing patents are created following the case laws and statutes to obtain
maximum legal rights;
Monetizing patents are the litigation-proof patents;
Monetizing patents adapt to the dynamic changes of legal environment.

TiVo patent US6233389 is an invention regarding the digital video recorder
(DVR). Today, many digital set-top boxes include the key functionality of
US6233389. TiVo monetized US6233389 through licensing and litigation
including $500 million settlement with EchoStar and $490 million settlement
with Google and Cisco.
Monetizing
DNA
Details
solve the righ
t technologic
al problem
The viewer stores TV programs onto magnetic tape using the VCR. The
VCR can pause the program playback whenever he desires, fast forwar
d through unwanted program material or commercials, and to replay fav
orite scenes. However, a VCR cannot both capture and play back inform
ation at the same time. The invention provides an easily manipulated, lo
w cost multimedia storage and display system that allows the user to vie
w a television broadcast program with the option of instantly reviewing p
revious scenes within the program. In addition, the invention allows the
user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is si
multaneously watching or reviewing another program: solve a problem
in great needs of improved/innovative and recognized well in an in
dustry

Monetizing
DNA
Details
solve the righ
t technologic
al problem
An embodiment of the invention accepts television (TV) input streams in
a multitude of forms including digital forms such as Digital Satellite Syst
em (DSS), Digital Broadcast Services (DBS), or Advanced Television St
andards Committee (ATSC): leads to a solution that has great busine
ss impacts (with the development of digital TV and broadband inter
net access)
The invention can be used in the detection of gambling casino crime. Th
e input section of the invention is connected to the casino's video surveil
lance system. Recorded video is cached and simultaneously output to e
xternal VCRs: follows the correct evolutionally pass for emerging te
chnology (e.g. applications in smart home/building security syste
m)

Monetizing
DNA
Details
practice valu
e innovation
An embodiment of the invention accepts television (TV) input streams in
a multitude of forms including digital forms such as Digital Satellite Syst
em (DSS), Digital Broadcast Services (DBS), or Advanced Television St
andards Committee (ATSC): provide values to customers without ad
ditional cost/pain or infrastructure/process change requirements b
y being included in the current digital systems
Although a VCR is specifically mentioned, any multimedia recording dev
ice (e.g., a Digital Video Disk-Random Access Memory (DVD-RAM) rec
order) is easily substituted in its place: provide unique value proposition
with maximum market protection; The invention can be used in the dete
ction of gambling casino crime. The input section of the invention is con
nected to the casino's video surveillance system. Recorded video is cac
hed and simultaneously output to external VCRs: provide unique value
proposition with maximum market protection

Monetizing
DNA
Details
actively parti
cipate in the
business eco
system
HBS Professor Iansiti, the author of “The Keystone Advantage,” suggest
ed technological assimilation as a new engine for technological innovati
ons in his article “Creative Construction.” In the technological assimilati
on frameworks, a core innovation that once provided stand-alone produ
cts or services for a specific market can be the building blocks for mass
market generating innovations through assimilation to broader platforms
that were not existed at the time of innovations. A good example may be
the GPS technology providing LBS (location based services) application
s for smartphones and automobiles. Another good example may be the
DVR technology of TiVo that was integrated into digital set-top box and
smart home platforms: can be a platform or integrated into a platfor
m

Monetizing
DNA
Details
legally savvy 4 US Families/ Total of 16 independent claims/High in different kind of st
atutory claim types: protection against invalidation
Exploited in 9 litigations and won the cases: litigation-proof

References
Collection of IoT Articles:
https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/alexgeunholee

Thank you!
If you have any questions
please contact Alex G. Lee
at alexglee@techipm.com

Internet of Things (IoT) Strategic Patent Development and Monetization 1Q 2016

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