This document analyzes over 10,000 issued US patents related to key wireless connectivity standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), including LTE, Wireless LAN, Zigbee, Bluetooth, NFC, and UHF RFID. It identifies more than 3,000 patents held by over 160 organizations as being essential to these IoT wireless standards. Samsung Electronics holds the most essential patents, followed by LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Nokia, Google, Ericsson, Intel, Apple, InterDigital, Sony, Broadcom, BlackBerry, Texas Instruments, Marvell, Panasonic, ETRI, NEC and Cisco.

1. IoT (Internet of things) Wireless Connectivity Standards Innovation Leadership
As the number of granted patent is a good measure of innovation activities, issued US patents that are related to the
key wireless standards for the IoT connectivity (LTE, Wireless LAN, Zigbee, Bluetooth, NFC, UHF RFID) are
analyzed to evaluate the technology innovation leadership. More than 10,000 issued patents as of May 15, 2015 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 for the relevant standard specifications (3GPP, IEEE, ISO, NFC
Forum, Bluetooth SIG). 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).
More than 3,000 patents hold by more than 160 assignees are identified as the key wireless standard patents for the
IoT connectivity. Samsung Electronics is the leader followed by LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Nokia, Google,
Ericsson, Intel, Apple, InterDigital, Sony, Broadcom, BlackBerry, Texas Instruments, Marvell, Panasonic, ETRI,
NEC and Cisco.
For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com.
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