Wireless Patents for Standards & Applications 1Q 2015

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Wireless Patents for Standards & Applications 1Q 2015
For more information, please contact Alex Lee at alexglee@techipm.com
4G LTE
To evaluate the innovativeness of patents for 4G LTE standard regarding UE (cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs,
mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNBs, Femtocells, Relays) products, more than 2000 4G LTE standard related
patents that are issued in the USPTO as of March 31, 2015 are reviewed. TechIPm, LLC’s 4G LTE patents for
standard research identified total of 1600 patents that are related to the LTE-Advanced standard.
To evaluate the essentiality of a patent for the LTE-Advanced standard, patent disclosures in claims and detail
description for each 4G LTE related patent are compared to the final versions of the 3GPP Release 10 technical
specifications for the LTE RAN (Radio Access Network). The evaluated patents are classified according to the
level of essentiality that are specified by the Essentiality Index (EI):
E1 : Patent disclosure is weakly related to LTE technical specifications
E2 : Patent disclosure is partially related to LTE technical specifications
E3 : Patent disclosure is related to LTE technical specifications overall

E4 : Patent disclosure is strongly related to LTE technical specifications
To be a potential essential patent candidate, EI should be E3 or E4.
Ranking for the innovativeness of each 4G LTE standard patents assignee is evaluated by the number of patents
weighted by the quality factor (EI). Among 35 IPR shareholders, LG is the leader followed by Samsung,
Qualcomm, Google (Motorola), Ericsson, Nokia, Apple, InterDigital, BlackBerry, and Panasonic.
Ranking Assignee
1 LG
2 Samsung
3 Qualcomm
4 Google
5 Ericsson
6 Nokia
7 Apple
8 InterDigital
9 BlackBerry

10 Panasonic
11 TI
12 Intel
13 NEC
14 ETRI
15 Innovative Sonic
16 ZTE
17 NTT Docomo
18 General Dynamics Broadband
19 Sony
20 Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei

WiFi
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 March 31, 2015. Among 85 IPR holders, Marvell is the leader followed by Intel, Samsung,
Qualcomm, Sony, Cisco, Broadcom, Philips, Texas Instruments and Toshiba.
Ranking Assignee
1 Marvell
2 Intel
3 Samsung
4 Qualcomm
4 Sony
6 Cisco

7 Broadcom
8 Philips
9 Texas Instruments
10 Toshiba
11 InterDigital
11 Microsoft
13 Ericsson
13 Innovatio IP Ventures
15 Canon
15 ETRI
15 Intellectual Ventures
15 Nokia
19 Sharp
20 AT&T

WPAN
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.
Ranking Assignee
1 Broadcom
2 Samsung Electronics
3 Nokia
4 Qualcomm
5 Texas Instruments

6 Philips
7 Ericsson
7 Intel
9 BlackBerry
9 ETRI
9 Sony
12 Apple
12 Avago Technologies
14 Mediatek
15 ZTE
15 Institute For Info. Tech.
15 Marvell
15 Proxense
19 Rembrandt Wireless Tech.
20 LG Electronics

NFC
NFC (Near field communication) is a short-range wireless technology that allows wireless connections between
two devices for data exchange in various business transactions. NFC-enabled smartphones are one of major driver
for current mobile communications market.
To find the key IPR holders for NFC patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed.
Total of 604 issued patents are identified as of March 31, 2015.
The identified NFC patents are classified by industry standard for NFC technology (ISO and NFC Forum) and
major NFC applications. The NFC Forum standard specifications included in the analysis are Activity, Digital,
Protocol, LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), NDEF (Data Exchange Format), RF/Analog, RTD (Record Type
Definition), and Tag Operation. The major NFC applications included in the analysis are NFC device and system
(e.g. security), mobile payments, mobile business applications, entertainment, and social networking applications.
Among 83 IPR holders Sony (including Sony Ericsson) is the leader followed by Visa, NXP, Nokia, Broadcom,
Round Rock, MasterCard, Blaze Mobile, Microsoft, Samsung, and BlackBerry.
Ranking Assignee

1 Sony (including Sony Ericsson)
2 Visa
3 NXP
4 Nokia
5 Broadcom
6 Round Rock
7 MasterCard
8 Blaze Mobile
9 Microsoft
10 Samsung
11 BlackBerry
12 American Express
13 Qualcomm
14 Inside Secure
15 eBay
16 FeliCa Networks

17 BLUE SKY PRIVATE EQUITY
18 Bank of America
19 Google
20 STMicroelectronics

RFID
TechIPm, LLC’s UHF RFID standard essential patents research for the US market identified total of 170 issued
patents in the USPTO as the potential candidates for UHF RFID standard essential patents as of March 31, 2015.
To evaluate the essentiality of a UHF RFID patent, patent disclosures in claims and detail description for each
UHF RFID patent is compared to ISO/IEC 18000-C technical specifications. Among 18 IPR shareholders, Round
Rock Research LLC, a patent assertion entity, is the leader followed by Symbol Technology, Intermec, ZIH
(Zebra), Impinj, Atmel, and Alien.
Round Rock Research LLC was founded by a billionaire John Desmarais, a famous patent attorney for his won in a
$1.52 billion verdict for Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft in 2007. Round Rock Research LLC became the second-
largest NPE following the Intellectual Ventures by acquiring a portfolio of 4,500 patents from Micron Technology
Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of semiconductor chips. Recently, Round Rock settled patent disputes with several
UHF RFID manufactures. Round Rock Research LLC is now operating successful licensing program collaborating
with IPVALUE, an IP monetization consulting firm.

Mobile IoT
M2M (Machine to Machine) and D2D (Device to Device) communication technologies are the key enablers for
emerging IoT (Internet of Things) applications. Recently several telecom operators are deploying 4G LTE based
M2M (LTE-M) and D2D communication services as a new profit center. Furthermore, several global
standardization bodies including ETSI, 3GPP, oneM2M are actively working on the technical and service standard
specifications of M2M and D2D communications.
As the number of patent applications is a good measure of innovation activities, to evaluate the M2M and D2D
innovation activities, more than 4000 issued patents and published applications in the USPTO obtained from
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 for M2M (e.g. low power design & management)
and D2D (e.g. discovery process) communications.
More than 850 including 150 issued patent applications are identified as the essential patents for M2M
communications as of March 31, 2015. Among 58 IPR holders, LG is the leader followed by Ericsson, InterDigital,
Samsung , ETRI, and Qualcomm.

More than 450 including 59 issued patent applications are identified as the essential patents for D2D
communications as of March 31, 2015. Among 28 IPR holders, Nokia is the leader followed by LG, Samsung,
Qualcomm, ETRI, and BlackBerry.
Combining M2M and D2D, there are total of more than 1300 patent applications that are the essential patents for
IoT communications. Among 61 IPR holders, LG is the leader followed by Ericsson, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nokia,
ETRI, Huawei (including FutureWei Technologies), Intel, and InterDigital.
M2M
Ranking Assignee
1 LG
2 Ericsson
3 InterDigital
4 Samsung
5 ETRI
6 Qualcomm
7 SCA IPLA

8 Huawei
9 ZTE
10 Intel
D2D
Ranking Assignee
1 Nokia
2 LG
3 Samsung
4 Qualcomm
5 ETRI
6 BlackBerry
7 Intel
8 Broadcom
9 Huawei
10 Ericsson

M2M+D2D
Ranking Assignee
1 LG
2 Ericsson
3 Samsung
4 Qualcomm
5 Nokia
6 ETRI
7 Huawei
8 Intel
9 InterDigital
10 SCA IPLA
11 ZTE
12 Broadcom
13 ITRI
14 BlackBerry

15 Alcatel-Lucent
16 KT
17 Convida Wireless
18 Verizon
19 Sony
20 Fujitsu
20 NEC

Wireless Patents for Standards & Applications 1Q 2015

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