5G SEP leadership in 2021

Abstract

In 2021, the 5G industry has gone from strength to strength. However, while 5G coverage and data speeds continue to improve, publications on 5G patent leadership continue to suffer from a lack of rigor and transparency.
This article is intended to provide some much-needed clarity to the question of 5G patent leadership by detailing the results of a review of eight different 5G landscaping reports, each scored for rigor and transparency.
This article also examines 5G leadership by company in 2021 by applying the most rigorous and transparent essentiality audit data to declared patent family counts to calculate industry shares of 5G patent families held by the top companies.

Keywords: SEPs, standard essential patents, FRAND, 5G, LTE/4G, royalty rate determination, patents, patent valuation, patent landscape, cellular, telecommunication, standards, ETSI, essentiality audits

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