Wireless/Mobile Patent Analysis Methodology

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com
Wireless/Mobile Patent
Analysis Methodology
Feb. 2012

©2012 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 2
Contents
I. Patent Landscaping
II. Essentiality
III. Portfolio Evaluation
IV. Valuation
V. Acquisition Feasibility Analysis
VI. Essential Patent Development

I. Patent Landscaping

1. Patent Landscaping
Since the United States is such a large market for products and services from
nearly all technology innovations, a patent counting for key IPR holders in
patenting over a period of times and distribution across technology areas can
be a good measuring tool for monitoring the evolution of technology innovations.
RFID Innovation FrontlineTM
RFID Innovation FrontlineTM is a research report on the technology innovations
landscape for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).
RFID Innovation FrontlineTM utilizes patent information to assess the state of
the art for technology innovations in RFID.
RFID Innovation FrontlineTM analyzes the utility patents issued in the United
States (US). Since the patent information are changed over time, this report
only reflects the technology innovations landscape up to the time the analysis is
conducted.

1. Patent Landscaping -2
RFID Innovation FrontlineTM is based on the statistical and analytical methods
for mining patent information.
Research for RFID Innovation FrontlineTM is done by an expert both in
intellectual 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 licensing
LTE-Advanced Patents Landscape 4Q 2011
To find the key IPR holders for LTE-Advanced patents, a keyword search of the
USPTO patent data base has been performed.

More than 500 published patent applications and issued patents classified by
key 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 to
the case of 3.9G LTE patents landscape, there are new key players that were
not in 3.9G LTE: Innovative Sonic and HTC. Especially, Innovative Sonic is a
Taiwanese NPE that sued RIM in 2010 for 3G mobile technology.
Ref. "LTE-Advanced Patents Data for Key Technologies“
NFC Patents for Standards & Applications 4Q 2011
To find the key IPR holders for NFC patents, a keyword search of the USPTO
patent data base has been performed. Total of 729 patents (588 published
patent applications) are identified as of Oct. 31, 2011.

The Key IPR holders are American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America,
Broadcom, First Data, Innovision Research & Technology, IBM, Inside
Contactless, LG, MasterCard, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sony (including
Sony Ericsson), NTT DoCoMo, NXP, Oberthur Technologies, Qualcomm,
Renesas Technology, RIM, Samsung, Sprint, and STMicroelectronics.
The identified NFC patents are classified by industry standard for NFC
technology (under development by the 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.
RF/Analog is identified as the top specification, and mobile payments are
identified as the top NFC application.
Ref. "NFC Patents Data for Standards and Applications"

II. Essentiality

2. Essentiality Analysis
An essential patent is defined as patent that contain one or more claims that
are infringed by the implementation of a specification for standardized
technology. Thus, if a product is implemented following the standard
specifications, it should infringe some essential patents.
LTE Essential Patent Candidates 3Q 2011
To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the
USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data
in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR
Online website is also included. More than 1,400 LTE related patents, issued an
d published applications in the US as of Aug. 15, 2011, are analyzed to find
essential patent candidates for LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) standards.
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.

2. Essentiality Analysis -2
Total of 184 patents are identified as the potential candidates for LTE RAN esse
ntial patent. The LTE IPR shareholders for essential patent candidates are Erics
son, ETRI, Freescale, Huawei, InterDigital, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, N
SN, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, TI, and ZTE.
Among the 184 essential patent candidates 53 patent candidates are issued (in
cluding 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 TechIPm's product based on LTE
patents research for US market leader among LTE UE (cellular phones, smart p
hones, PDAs, mobile PCs, etc.) and base station (eNB) product manufactures.
LTE Essential Patent Candidates Data provides assignee, patent number, relat
ed 3GPP TS36 specifications, and the key technology components for an imple
mentation of the products.

III. Portfolio Evaluation

3. Patent Portfolio Evaluation
Methodology:
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 considering
the 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 evaluation
service for patent due diligence in mobile business acquisition.
LTE patent portfolio evaluation can provide the followings.

3. Patent Portfolio Evaluation -2
1. What is the quality of the LTE patent portfolio?
Categorize the identified patents through the evaluation process by technology
in the standard specifications Key technology components for an implementatio
n of the LTE baseband modem: OFDM/OFDMA (Frame & Slot Structure, Modul
ation), SC-FDMA (PUSCH, PUCCH), Channel Estimation (UL RS, DL RS, CQI),
Cell Search & Connection (PRACH, DL SS), MIMO (Transmit Diversity, Spatial
Multiplexing), Resource Management (Resource Allocation, Scheduling), Codin
g (Convolution, Turbo), Power Control, and HARQ. Key technology components
for 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, and
Mobility (Handover, Inter-RAT, Measurements).

3. Patent Portfolio Evaluation -3
Evaluate the level of essentiality
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.
2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of the LTE patent portfolio?
Comparative analysis among the patent portfolios (e.g. Nokia v. Motorola) by
technology.
Answer for what critical holes in patent landscape are there to be filled & who
has patent portfolio to fill those holes.
3. Who are the best candidate for mobile business acquisition considering the
business integration and/or compatibility?
4. What are the potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits?

IV. Valuation

4. LTE Patent Portfolio Valuation
Methodology:
1. Auditing for the complete set of LTE patent portfolios.
To find the key LTE patent portfolios, a keyword search of the USPTO patent
data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of
patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website
is also included.
2. Evaluation of the LTE patent portfolio
Portfolio quality evaluation:
in the standard specifications Key technology components for an
implementation of the LTE baseband modem and LTE radio protocol.

4. LTE Patent Portfolio Valuation -2
Essentiality analysis:
To evaluate the essentiality of a LTE patent, patent disclosures in claim and det
ail description for each LTE patent are compared to the final versions of the 3G
PP Release 8 technical specifications.
3. Calculation of base values.
Calculate a base value of a LTE patent using the recent Nortel's and Motorola's
patent deals.
4. Strengths/weaknesses of a particular IPR holder's LTE patent portfolio.
•Interesting LTE IPR holders: InterDigital, RIM, Nokia, TI, Qualcomm,
Samsung, LG, Ericsson, ZTE

4. LTE Patent Portfolio Valuation -3
5. Valuation of the LTE patent portfolio.
Calculate the value of a particular IPR holder's LTE patent portfolio using the th
e base value utilizing the portfolio's quality factors.
*In recent Jefferies & Co's valuation (http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabet
hwoyke/2011/09/21/identifying-the-tech-leaders-in-lte-wireless-patents/),
only the essentiality factor (TechIPm provided) was considered.

V. Acquisition Feasibility Analysis

5. Patent Acquisition Feasibility Analysis
Methodology:
1. Acquisition subject matter selection and patent landscaping
Review the current market demand (including patent lawsuits) for selecting
acquisition 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.

5. Patent Acquisition Feasibility Analysis -2
2. Candidate selection and patent marketability evaluation:
Based on assignee’s business situation, select the possible acquisition
candidate.
Investigate the marketability of the candidate:
market valuation
business integration and/or compatibility
potential risks considering the possible patent lawsuits
TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides acquisition feasibility
analysis service for wireless patents.

VI. Essential Patent Development

6. Essential Patent Development
Methodology:
1. Auditing for the complete set of essential patent candidates:
Review the current USPTO database published and issued by a specific
assignee.
and 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.

6. Essential Patent Development -2
3. 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 claims
TechIPm, LLC (http://www.techipm.com/) provides wireless patent auditing and
essential patent development services.

Thank you!
• If you have any questions about
TechIPm’s products and services,
please contact Dr. Alex G. Lee at
alexglee@techipm.com

Wireless/Mobile Patent Analysis Methodology

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