ITU Workshop on Standards and
Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR) Issues
IPR and standards: A summary
of research findings
Stephan Gauch,
Berlin University of Technology
New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011
International
Telecommunication
Union
Why discuss IPR and standards?
Strong growth of applications and registrations
of IPR driven by strategic motives
Role of IPRs (most notably patents) in fields
like software
quality discussion regarding IPRs
Fear of fragmentation of technology
landscapes
Specific problems regarding IPR and
standardization: Patent Holdups, Patent
Ambush, Royalty Stacking (Blind et al., 2011)
New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011
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What does research say?
New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011
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Patents in standards are on the
rise?
New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011
Source:
Simcoe et al
International
Telecommunication
(2009)
Union
What technologies?
IPC class
H04L - Transmission of digital information, e.g. telegraphic
communication
H04B - Transmission
H04Q - Selecting
H04J - Multiplex communication
G06F - Electric digital data processing
G10L - Speech analysis or synthesis; speech recognition
H03M - Coding; decoding or code conversion, in general
H04M - Telephonic communication
G01S - Radio direction-finding; radio navigation; determining distance
or velocity by use of radio waves; locating or presence-detecting by
use of the reflection or reradiation of radio waves; analogous
arrangements using other waves
H04N - Pictorial communication, e.g. Television
G06K - Recognition of data; presentation of data; record carriers;
handling record carriers
G06T - Image data processing or generation, in general
Number of
essential
patents
1364
1356
1308
633
432
363
235
225
208
202
166
73
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What technologies?
Total patents
claimed
Unique patent
families (INPADOC)
UMTS
2864
1605
GSM
1333
756
LTE
866
562
OMA standards
408
266
IETF standards
271
197
IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless
Metropolitan Area Network ("WiMax")
165
105
JTC RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification for Item Management)
143
78
IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN (aka "WiFi")
136
Standard (coded)
New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011
98
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Who claims essential patents?
Claiming company
Total
patents
claimed
Unique patent
families (INPADOC)
Nokia
1480
776
Qualcomm
1284
505
InterDigital
986
285
Ericsson
553
362
Motorola
319
180
Siemens
196
121
LG Electronics
188
107
Nortel Networks
170
94
AlcatelLucent
168
105
Samsung Electronics
115
70
Philips
102
60
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Who claims essential patents?
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Who claims essential patents?
Claiming company
Total
patents
claimed
Unique patent
families (INPADOC)
US
3910
1732
EU
2980
1707
JP
369
234
Asia (wo/ JP)
359
209
Ca
265
152
IS
25
16
Other
15
13
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Standards with IPR: four
‘leagues’ according to (Beckers et al., 2011)
League
Examples
Typical no of
patents
1. Telecom and IT
GSM, UMTS, LTE,
WiFi
>100 (seven
standards)
<100 (another 20)
2. IT and consumer
electronics
Video coding, DVB,
FireWire
Mostly 20 – 100
patents
3. Enabling
technologies
RFID, ‘agricultural
electronics
identification’
>100 (one
standard)
1-20 patents (few
others)
4. ‘genuine’ non-ICT Very few
related standards
Very few
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Results of a recent company and
stakeholder survey
Most important reason for including IPR in
standards: freedom to operate & signaling
Royalty Free preferred by companies without
essential IPRs, but no dissent with IPR owners
Threats: Non-practicing entities (NPE) and
more rights-holders per standards and
licensors
Challenge: Determine the right “price” for IPRs
in standards
Future: more standards will and should be
based on open source software
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Recent research results on IPR
and standards
New actors have entered the “IPR game”, but…
… also Non-Practicing Entities and only few SMEs
SMEs with IPR enter the standardization arena, but
are also…
… those that have a “greater likelihood of an initial
public offering or acquisition.“(Waguespack and
Felmming, 2009)
IPR in standards is a game of “ big players”, but…
… very patent-intensive players are less likely to
participate than players with medium patentintensity (Blind, forthcoming)
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Recent research results on IPR
and standards
Only few standards are impacted by patents, but…
… those standards are almost all in the same sector
(ICT)
Patents in standards is an issue in ICT, but …
… spillover to other sectors: cars, energy, health
Disputes about IPR in standards are an exception, …
… on the one hand they might have a substantial impact
on technology…
… on the other hand most disputes are settled (for now)
Patents are most relevant now, but…
… copyright might play a more prominent role in theInternational
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future
Recent research results on IPR
and standards
Standards are perceived as unattractive to
some IPR holders, but…
patents in standards receive twice more
attention (Rysman & Simcoe, 2006)
IPR in standards is believed to shake up
standardization, but…
… a standard including essential patents is less
likely to be replaced by a different standard.
(Baron et al., 2011)
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Recent research results on IPR
and standards
Patent pools are a useful tool, but …
… only if they are complete, easy and large
median pool size: ~20 companies and ~45
patents, skewed towards large pools
Standards where a patent pool exists have 5
times more declaring companies compared to
other standards with patents
Standards where a patent pool exists have 1.5
times more declared patents compared to
other standards with patents (Baron &
Pohlmann, 2011)
… some pools too might involve competition
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issues
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Recent research results on IPR
and standards
IPR in standards is believed to shake up
standardization, but…
… a standard including essential patents is less
likely to be replaced by a different standard.
(Baron et al., 2011)
On average Royalty Free would “make
implementation of standards easier”, but…
… FRAND is a strong incentives of IPR holders
to participate, but…
… IPR holders have no clear cut preference
regarding both
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Some policy options
Clear rules: irrevocable and worldwide
licensing commitments
Legal certainty in case of transfer of IPR to
third parties
Incentives for “good faith” IPR inquiries and
disclosure
Transparent, complete and accessible IPR
databases
Elaborate cooperation with patent offices
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More information on IPR and
standards
Recent study on IPR and standards
funded by the EC:
http://tinyurl.com/standardsandipr
More information on standardisation
research at the European Academy for
Standardization: http://www.euras.org/
More information on our research:
http://www.inno.tu-berlin.de/
Thank you.
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