When it comes to 5G patents, quality and essentiality matters

When assessing the 5G patent landscape, many studies and articles take an overly simplistic approach and only look at the total number of patents or patent applications declared by their owners as potentially essential, which can be misleading. If an essentiality filter is used, the landscape looks very different. Last year, we highlighted a study that took this more rigorous approach. And revisiting the topic in 2020 using the same metric, it appears the results are very similar.

For the second year in a row, the patent intelligence division of the law firm Bird & Bird, twoBirds Pattern, has looked at essentiality rates on a company basis using a court-approved approach developed in the “Unwired Planet vs. Huawei” case, rather than treating all declared patents equally. It highlights a flaw in the approach many reports take in weighting quantity over quality.

The firm found, in line with its findings from 2019, that companies in the European Union hold the highest combined share of 5G patent families, also in 2020. This differs from other, less rigorous media reports that put other regions in the lead when it comes to 5G-related patents.

Caption: twoBirds Pattern’s analysis used a court-approved approach to evaluate patents for essentiality, showing European companies with a clear advantage.

While the Bird & Bird study shows European companies leading the 5G “race”, another recent analysis of the patent landscape shows Ericsson specifically standing out as a clear leader.

Former Commissioner for Patents at the USPTO, Robert Stoll, built upon Bird & Bird’s analysis by breaking down essential patents by company, rather than region. He looked at 5G leadership through the lens of a patent family metric, applying essentiality audits and a jurisdictional quality filter to each company’s portfolio.

Stoll found that Ericsson leads the field with 16.1 percent of 5G patent families. Samsung has 11.0 percent, and then Huawei with 9.4 percent (the rest of the industry accounts for the other 63.5 percent).

The methodology of both these analyses correctly observes that only some of the ideas in 5G patents are truly essential to the standard. That “essentiality” matters when measuring meaningful innovation and inventiveness. However, reports that measure what companies self-proclaim may be or may become essential, rather than measuring what actually is essential, can give a misleading view of who has produced meaningful 5G patents.

Company shares of essential 5G patent families

Caption: An in-depth evaluation by former USPTO official Robert Stoll bolsters the view that patents should be evaluated by quality and essentiality, showing Ericsson ahead of major 5G competitors.

Ericsson’s 5G leadership is further exemplified by our 5G Foundation Patent. In 2016, Ericsson filed a landmark 5G patent application, over 400 pages long, that represents years of research from 130 inventors – the largest patent application ever in cellular communications.

The application shows how Ericsson approached 5G standardization with a comprehensive view that connected complementary inventions into a complete 5G architecture, and it has so far resulted in granted patents in more than 45 countries. The 5G technology that Ericsson has developed is leading to exciting new applications like driverless cars, robotic surgery and smart factories.

Behind the technology are ideas, intellectual property, and patents – the foundation on which the 5G revolution is being built. Patent leadership can be an indicator of who the key players in 5G development are, but assessing true leadership is complicated; initial perceptions can be deceiving. Such assessments should be done rigorously and take into account quality and “essentiality” to paint an accurate picture of the IP landscape around 5G.

Learn more

Read Christina’s previous post on why you shouldn’t believe everything you read about 5G patents.

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