Strategic Patent Management in Mobile Telecom

Trends & Issues with Strategic Patent Management for Mobile Communication Technologies Nov. 11 2009

Abstract We are now eye witnessing the dawning of 4 th generation mobile evolution era. Technology innovations have been the key enabler for the mobile evolution, and IPRs for technology innovations were at the heart of mobile business. Thus, as the starting of worldwide commercial services and standardization by ITU, it will be timely matter to review the current trends and issues with IPRs for emerging 4G mobile technologies. In parallel with the current increasing interests in 4G mobile IPRs, we analyze the IPRs for LTE, which is one of emerging 4G mobile technologies, as a case study. In this presentation, we show the result of analysis for LTE IPR landscape, the case study for the strategic management of LTE patent portfolios, licensing issues such as patent pool royalties, and NPE related problems.

Contents 1. Mobile Revolution Began with Patent 2. Patents at the Heart of Mobile Business: Qualcomm’s Profit Center 3. Beginning of 4 th Generation Mobile 4. Complex IPR Landscape 4.1 LTE IPR Landscape 4.2 Mobile WiMAX IPR Landscape 5. IPR Strategy: Strategic Alignment 5.1 IPR-Standardization Alignment Best Practice: LTE Case Study 6. Strategic Management of Patent Portfolio 7. Patent Portfolio Management: Mobile Telecom Case Study 8. Patent Portfolio Management: LTE Case Study (1) 9. Patent Portfolio Management: LTE Case Study (2) 10. Licensing Issues: Pool or Bilateral 11. NPE Issues: Evolution of IP business? 11.1 NPEs in Mobile Telecom 11.2 Pro or Con for the NPEs Appendix. 4G IPR References

1. Mobile Revolution Began with Patent The mobile communication revolution began at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908 the first US Patent for a wireless phone was registered by Nathan B. Stubblefield (US887357). The first US Patent for cell phone technology is described in U.S. Patent 4152647, issued May 1, 1979 to Charles A. Gladden and Martin H. Parelman. Image Source: http://symonsez.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/stubblefield.jpg

2. Patents at the Heart of Mobile Business: Qualcomm’s Profit Center Figure Source: Qualcomm

3. Beginning of 4 th Generation Mobile The 4G mobile standardization (IMT-Advanced) was started this October by ITU-R and the standards establishment is scheduled to be early 2011. 3GPP’s LTE-Advanced and IEEE’s Mobile WiMAX Evolution are the two major candidates for IMT-Advanced standards.

4. Complex IPR Landscape As of September 30 2009, there are more than 100,000 patent applications and more than 2,000 IPR holders identified by keyword searching, which are issued in the US. Ref. http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/

4.1 LTE IPR Landscape As of September 30 2009, there are total of 1607 declarations for LTE essential patent candidates and more than 20 IPR holders in the lists of ETSI IPR Online, which are issued, published, and pending patents worldwide including PCT applications. Ref. http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/

4.2 Mobile WiMAX IPR Landscape As of September 30 2009, there are more than 2000 patent applications and more than 100 IPR holders identified by keyword searching, which are issued and published patents worldwide including PCT applications. Ref. http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/

5. IPR Strategy: Strategic Alignment Strategic alignment in business-market-product-technology-patent-standard Ref. Dr. Jan Jaferian in Business Power: Creating New Wealth from IP Assets, Wiley, 2007.

5.1 IPR-Standardization Alignment Best Practice: LTE Case Study 3GPP TS36.211 (OFDM/MIMO) US20070xxxxxx A1

6. Strategic Management of Patent Portfolio Ref. Dr. Jan Jaferian in Business Power: Creating New Wealth from IP Assets, Wiley, 2007.

7. Patent Portfolio Management: Mobile Telecom Case Study

8. Patent Portfolio Management: LTE Case Study (1) An interesting point in recent LTE related news is that LTE patent portfolios are used as a strategic business tool, especially for marketing and PR purpose: In recent press interview for “LG's Successful LTE-CDMA Handover"‎, Dr. Scott Ahn, President & CEO of LG Mobile Communications, expressed that LG will lead the 4G innovations based on about 300 LTE-related patents and experiences in leading the LTE standardization.( http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/08/lgs-lte-innovation-leadership.html ) Yin Weimin, President of LTE at Huawei, advertised in recent press interview that Huawei has been granted 147 Long Term Evolution (LTE) patents as of August 2009. He said that “The achievement reflects our pioneering vision and firm commitment to support operators worldwide as they evolve towards delivering advanced services to end-users through LTE networks”. ( http://www.ednasia.com/article-24626-huaweipullsaheadinltepatentranking-Asia.html )

9. Patent Portfolio Management: LTE Case Study (2) Based on TechIPm's recent IPR analysis for LTE OFDM/MIMO standards ( http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lteiprofdmmimo20093q ), a possible scenario for strategic business alliance between InterDigital (IP licensing company) and Texas Instruments (semiconductor chip manufacturer) is analyzed by comparing to Qualcomm's (IP licensing company + semiconductor chip manufacturer) LTE patent portfolio for LTE OFDM/MIMO standards in number of patents, technology coverage, and quality by Essentiality Index. InterDigital+TI's combined LTE patent portfolio for OFDM/MIMO standards shows that the InterDigital+TI strategic alliance could be a strong competitor to Qualcomm in LTE baseband chip and IPR licensing market.

Fig 9.1 Technology Coverage Comparison

Fig 9.2 Patent Quality Comparison

10. Licensing Issues: Pool or Bilateral Royalties and FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory) OPA (Open Patent Alliance): WiMAX Patent Pool NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Network): issued a RFI on LTE patent pool Administration.

10.1 LTE Royalty Rates Qualcomm revealed that the company had put royalty rate at 3.25 % for LTE patent licensing. Ref. http://www.telecomtiger.com/Corporate_fullstory.aspx?passfrom=corporate&storyid=6478&section=S162 Nokia expects Nokia’s rate for devices that deploy LTE as the only wireless communication standard to be in a range of 1.5 % from the sales price of an end-user device. To avoid unfavorable effects of royalty stacking, Nokia will not charge royalties higher than 2.0 % from the sales price of an end-user device for IPR that is essential to wireless communication standards irrespective of the number of wireless standards deployed in such a device. Ref. http://www.nokia.com/press/ipr-information/statement/nokia-licensing-policy-on-long-term-evolution-and-service-architecture-evolution-essential-patents Ericsson said all of its LTE agreements will be made according to Ericsson's proportional share of the standard IPR that relates to the relevant product category. Ericsson likewise honors the same industry practice by ensuring a maximum cumulative rate on LTE technology not exceeding a single-digit rate. Ericsson´s fair royalty rate for LTE is therefore expected to be around 1.5 % for handsets. Ref. http://www.telecomseurope.net/content/ericsson-licenses-lte-technology http://www.ericsson.com/technology/licensing_programs/ Nortel will charge about 1 % of sales for use of its LTE patents, which is less than the 1.5 % rate another manufacturer has announced, Danny Locklear, Nortel’s director of global wireless marketing. Ref. http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Daily-News/eb183512-5a9a-433f-ba1a-cbe6cf69dc31.html Huawei believes it will hold 15-20% of all essential patents relate to LTE standard, therefore, a royalty rate with some flexibility, but not to exceed 1.5 % , is expected. Ref. http://www.huawei.com/ipr2.do Motorola expects that its essential patent royalty rate for LTE systems and equipment (e.g. infrastructure and subscriber handsets) will be approximately 2.25 % . Ref. http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=8827

11. NPE Issues: Evolution of IP business? By the definition of Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll ), "non-practicing entity" (NPE) is a patent owner who does not manufacture or use the patented invention, but rather than abandoning the right to exclude, an NPE seeks to enforce its right through the negotiation of licenses and litigation. According to Patent Freedom ( https://www.patentfreedom.com/ ), as of December 2008, there are about 220 NPEs and over 800 subsidiaries including such as Intellectual Ventures and InterDigital. NPEs hold more than 16,000 patent families and are involved in more than 2,200 lawsuits (12% of total patent litigations). Nortel’s Devolution to Non-Practicing Entity? http://www.martinsuter.net/blog/2009/08/nortels-devolution-to-nonpracticing-entity.html Mosaid Technologies eyeing Nortel patents from high-profile to the obscure http://www.news1130.com/news/business/more.jsp?content=b252452721

11.1 NPEs in Mobile Telecom As of Oct. 30 2009, NPEs hold 907 patent families (4% of total patents) and are involved in 129 lawsuits (13% of total patent litigations).

11.2 Pro or Con for the NPEs Personal Discussion with AIPLA Members Q. NPE defenders argued that NPE is a natural evolution of IP business in the knowledge-based economy. NPE defenders insisted that the NPEs could be appreciated for the valuable secondary market they are creating. These intellectual investors recycle otherwise unused assets and make them part of the productive economy again ( http://hallingblog.com/2009/09/18/in-defense-of-patent-trolls ). NPE opponents, however, said that the NPEs are hampering US innovation by abusing patent system and imposing heavy litigation cost and licensing fee burden to the companies. Recent written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Coalition of Patent Fairness ( http://www.patentfairness.org/ ) revealed the negative role of NPEs in innovation promotion and job creation. Are you pro of con? A1. This is personal opinion, not a position of the firm or particular clients. I was interested to hear Judge Michel quote some statistics the other day on patent litigation. It's essentially 'flat' in terms of number of cases filed and median damage awards. I agree that NPEs can be an annoyance to clients in specific cases, but I think they've been around for a long time. Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co. 210 U.S. 405, (1907) announced the rule that one need not practice in order to enforce a patent. And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Hazeltine Research a NPE? Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research Inc. 395 U.S. 100, (1969). eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, (2006) solved the big problem of being 'held up' by a NPE. It is after the NAS and FTC Patent Reform reports. Perhaps NPEs are not truly a recent or systemic problem. Would first-inventor-to-file plus effective oppositions provide an additional solution? Probably. But if you want to deal with junk patents out there filed by those who are manipulating the system, maybe you want to keep the right to determine fraud in the hands of the judges -- who regularly decide who is a liar or a cheat and who is not.

11.2 Pro or Con for the NPEs -2 Personal Discussion with AIPLA Members A2. As a personal, law-student-type opinion, not representative of my firm or clients, I favor the NPEs solely for the sake of intellectual consistency and justiciability. For example, what if an "NPE line" were drawn at: "persons not manufacturing a product or providing a service infringing the asserted patent"? Many "practicing" corporations own patents that may not _exactly_ read on what those corporations presently practice, although when the spec and claims were drafted the applicants believed the patent application disclosed and claimed the best mode of the invention. Those patents still are useful for discouraging competitors who otherwise would want to leverage the disclosed invention. Should the owners of those patents have to jump through an extra set of hoops regarding "NPE" status, before being able to assert their patents against a copyist? Or should the courts grant a presumption to companies that actually manufacture a product? Should the test for an NPE be "persons not manufacturing a product or providing a service"? Then what about Intellectual Ventures, which provides the service of monetizing patent ownership? In summary, trying to penalize "NPEs" by drawing a threshold for standing to litigate, either would subvert the genuine business value of many patents held by "practicing" entities, or would require the courts to pick and choose favored litigants. A3. The increase in "NPE" activity can likely also be linked to (a) the increased cost of litigation and (b) the change in standards for declaratory judgment actions from one extreme to another extreme. Regarding (a), most independent inventors or small business cannot afford litigation so enforcing or monetizing via a third party (e.g, an NPE) is one of the only alternatives (contingent fee law firms perhaps being the other). We need litigation reform rather than more patent reform. Regarding (b), what are lawyers advising clients about how to approach potential licensees or infringers without triggering a DJ action? In the past, a fairly straightforward letter ("You should license my patents") wouldn't trigger a DJ action. Unclear what the standard is today. Acacia is often labeled a "patent troll"/NPE. However, look at comments from independent inventors who've done deals with them. http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/iphearings/540872-00048.pdf It is dramatically more difficult to obtain a patent and also to monetize a patent compared to just a few years ago. The standards for declaratory judgment actions, doctrine of equivalents, obviousness, permanent injunctions, damages, willful infringement and more have changed- all decreasing the value of patents. Many think a good thing. Time will tell whether its just another Sarbanes-Oxley-like knee jerk reaction to some prior patent problems. Perhaps innovation will be the next bubble to pop. Until the courts/congress make resolving IP disputes & monetizing patents easier and safer for all involved, NPEs are likely the only option for many innovators.

Appendix. 4G IPR References LTE Essential Patents Landscape 2Q 2009 http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/3gpplteessential-patents2009q2brief LTE IPR Analysis 3Q 2009 http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/lteiprofdmmimo20093q Global LTE Essential Patent Candidates http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/10/global-lte-essential-patent-candidates.html Global Mobile WiMAX Patent Portfolios Analysis http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/10/global-4g-lte-mobile-wimax-patent_16.html

Questions? If you have any questions please contact Dr. Alex G. Lee at alexglee@techipm.com

Strategic Patent Management in Mobile Telecom

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Strategic Patent Management in Mobile Telecom