Top 5 essential and highly novel LTE 4G patent holders

By Telecom Lead Team: Nokia,
Qualcomm, Samsung, Ericsson and LG are the top 5 essential and highly novel LTE
4G patent holders, according to a report by Article One Partners (AOP), a
patent research community, with Thomson Reuters.

The ranking is significant as
companies use patents as a way to differentiate from the competition and lead
their industry. Patents protect a company’s intellectual property and allow it
to foster innovation. Companies use patents as a way to lead their industry and
differentiate from the competition.

(Please see chart at the end of the
article)

AOP and Thomson Reuters underwent a
patent review process looking at all 3,116 patents and pending patents declared
essential, as of September 30, 2011, by members of ETSI (European
Telecommunications Standards Institute).

AOP and Thomson Reuters, according
to a press release, said Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Ericsson LTE patent
portfolios will shape up smartphone industry.

“We expect that the LTE
Standards process and litigation resolution over the next few years will result
in a licensing regime for the smart phones industry to more closely resemble
their forbearers, the telecommunications and computer industries. Patents
rarely exclude competition in the long run, particularly where thousands of
patents (today, 3000+ under ETSI LTE specifications) can apply to devices,
access and content/applications,” said Cheryl Milone, CEO and Founder of
AOP, is a co-author on the article.

AOP and Thomson Reuters applied a
three-stage review to identify the LTE patent leaders.

In stage one, Thomson Reuters
determined the essentiality of each patent by comparing it with the ETSI LTE
specifications as of November 18, 2011. Stage two involved prior art checking,
or a review of prior art references that were part of the patent application
process in the US and Europe. The prior art references were used by Thomson
Reuters to evaluate the novelty and provide a novelty rating for each patent.
Thomson Reuters found the leaders of the LTE standards essential and highly
novel patents were Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Ericsson and LG.

Percentage of essential and highly
novel patent ownership for the top 5 companies identified by Thomson Reuters

In stage three of the study, the AOP
research community was asked to identify patents covering three technology trends
representing the next generation of LTE technology: Multiple Input Multiple
Output (MIMO), Advanced Carrier Aggregation and Voice Over LTE for Multimedia
Applications with Video.

Following this, the AOP Community
was asked to provide US patents and patent applications that map to the
technology trends. AOP then calculated the percentage of patents owned by the
majority owners of highly essential and highly novel patents as determined by
Thomson Reuters.

Percentage of the Article One
Partners’ technology trend collections owned by  the top 5 companies identified by Thomson Reuters:

The valuations for patent
acquisitions of Nortel and Motorola Mobility at $4.5 billion and $12.5 billion,
respectively, have given Apple, Microsoft, RIM and Google representation in
patent ownership of LTE technology. Also, the consortium of Apple, EMC,
Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony owns 2.29 percent and Motorola Mobility,
recently acquired by Google, owns 1.15 percent of the LTE patents and patent
applications submitted by the community for this analysis.

Key patent percentage ownership can
change daily when the market is converging on rapidly changing solutions, such
as VoLTE. Companies shown in the AOP technology trend results are driving the
filing of patent applications to maintain and grow their prominent position in
LTE patents.

editor@telecomlead.com