After several months' preparation, ABI, a well-known industry analyst, investigated all the standard patents in the process of formulating R&D and LTE-Advanced standards from 2005 to 201year, and collected and sorted out the major companies that made the greatest intellectual property contribution to the core standards of 3GPP (3rd generation partnership project) LTE.
In ABI's latest LTE standard patent report, the first group Huawei and Ericsson are leading the development of LTE and LTE-Advanced standard patents. Other major contributors include Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Qualcomm and Samsung. Major telecom equipment manufacturers in the industry are increasing their investment in LTE standards and striving to occupy a place in the LTE era.
Within 3GPP, there are many specialized working groups to investigate the standard patent proposals submitted by various companies, and there is a complete review process. The data of 3GPP can objectively and truly reflect the overall strength of each manufacturer in LTE standard patents.
Judging from the current patent ownership and market distribution of LTE core standards, mainstream manufacturers such as Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens, which have always had traditional advantages, will still occupy a dominant position in the LTE era. Since 20 1 1, Huawei has contributed the most standard patents, showing its strong R&D strength. From 2005 to 20 1 1, Ericsson maintained its overall leading position. The ranking of Nokia (including Nokia Siemens Networks) is declining year by year.
The ABI report also points out that some companies use ETSI database to show how many basic or core LTE patents they have. However, ETSI does not have a special working group to comprehensively review and verify the patent statements submitted by companies, and there is no third party to determine whether the patent statements submitted by companies to ETSI are real basic patents or core patents. Therefore, ETSI data may not objectively reflect the patent situation of each company.
The situation of LTE standard patents of various companies also reflects their position in global LTE commercialization. The latest LTE evolution report released by Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) shows that Huawei and Ericsson have obvious advantages, among which Huawei deployed 18 LTE commercial network and Ericsson deployed 15. Noci also showed strong competitiveness and deployed 12 commercial network.
Finally, standard patent is the key to determine whether the LTE industrial chain can develop healthily for a long time. Companies in the industrial chain should build a balanced intellectual property licensing business environment according to internationally accepted intellectual property standards and the principles of fairness, reasonableness and non-discrimination (FRAND), share LTE technology and standard patents with the industry in an open and cooperative manner, and promote the development of future technologies and achieve common success.