Huawei, Samsung and LG shifting the balance of LTE IPR

Stuart Corner
Friday, 21 May 2010 08:06

Business IT - Technology

The growing competence of companies like Samsung, LG and Huawei in LTE technology will result in a major redistribution of intellectual property rights (IPR) wealth that is likely to help the whole industry by reducing technology licensing and royalty cost, according to research firm Informa Telecoms & Media.

Informa says that while the 2G, 3G, and 3.5G IPR landscape was dominated by Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson, new players including Samsung, LG and Huawei have dramatically improved their patent portfolio for LTE compared to previous technologies.

"Using data from the ETSI, USPTO, [US Patents & Trademarks Office] and EPO [European Patent Office] databases, we analysed the distribution of LTE patent wealth by company and by region," said Malik Kamal Saadi, principal analyst at Informa.

"While InterDigital and Qualcomm are clear leaders in the global LTE patents portfolio with 21 percent and 19 percent market shares respectively of the total number of patents, Huawei comes in third position with nine percent, Samsung in fourth position with eight percent and Nokia, LG, and Ericsson in joint fifth place, each with seven percent market share."

Informa adds that, while the number of patents gives an indication of how different players are positioned in the LTE market, the value of each patent can vary enormously depending on its role in LTE technology. "An 'essential' LTE patent, for example, is a key invention or process required for implementing and practising the LTE standard as defined by 3GPP," Kamal Saadi said.

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