Mobile Patents
Landscape
http://www.chetansharma.com/MobilePatentsLandscape.htm
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Introduction
In
April 2012, in its report on Intellectual Property, the US
Patent Office (USPTO) concluded that the entire US economy
relies on some form of IP, because virtually every industry
either produces or uses it. The foreword of the report said,
“Innovation protected by IP rights is key to creating new jobs
and growing exports. Innovation has a positive pervasive effect
on the entire economy, and its benefits flow both upstream and
downstream to every sector of the U.S. economy. Intellectual
property is not just the final product of workers and
companies—every job in some way, produces, supplies, consumes or
relies on innovation, creativity, and commercial
distinctiveness. Protecting our ideas and IP promotes
innovative, open, and competitive markets, and helps ensure that
the U.S. private sector remains America’s innovation engine.”
Intellectual property has been an integral part of the economic
engine of the western world for many decades if not centuries.
Over the past two decades, nations and corporations have
competed on the creation, funding, execution, and protection of
the new ideas. Increasingly, the role of mobile devices,
networks, and applications has become an important component of
the growth story worldwide.
To
say that the mobile devices have become the remote control of
our lives would be an understatement. Mobile phones stay
attached to us almost 24 hours a day. From waking us up in the
morning to keeping us connected and entertained, from speeding
up a commerce transaction to being a trusted advisor; mobile is
fundamentally changed how we as consumers behave and how
societies and cultures evolve over time. As a result, there has
been a big influx of investment and innovation over the last
decade. This surge of activity has also translated into
increased number of patent filings in the two major
jurisdictions of US and Europe. Even the developing countries
like China and India have seen a significant increase in patent
activity in the country. In fact, in terms of filings, China’s
share of the global patent grants has increased from 0.8% in
1996 to 15% in 2010 placing it third behind Japan and the US and
well ahead of Korea and Europe.
According to the US Patent Office (USPTO), in 2011, the number
of applications reached over 535,000 growing by almost 54% from
a decade ago. Similarly, the number of patents granted grew 35%
to 224,505 by the end of 2011. The numbers of foreign filings
are now in the majority for both the applications filed as well
as the patents granted. In Europe, similar trends were observed
where the EPO (European Patent Office) patent grants increased
by 46%.
The
number of mobile related patents that were granted by the USPTO
and the EPO increased significantly over the course of last
decade. The US market saw a 390% increase while the European
market saw a 173% increase in mobile related patent grants.
Another interesting fact is that as of Q1 2012, over 21% of the
patents granted by the USPTO now are mobile related. This grew
from around 2% in 1991 and 5% in 2011. In Europe, roughly 9% of
the patents granted are related to mobile.
Chetan Sharma Consulting analyzed almost 7 million patents
granted by the USPTO and EPO over the last two decades to
understand how mobile has become a key enabler for all
technology companies. Furthermore, we looked at patent granted
to the top 65 technology companies who are active in the mobile
space to understand their relative strengths and weaknesses in
the mobile patent landscape. In a first of its kind study, the
paper presents and discusses these findings in more detail.
Read the full paper
Your feedback is
always welcome.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless
data sector in our blog, twitter
feeds, future
research reports,
and articles.
The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in May
2012. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued
in Apr 2012.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are
our clients.
