Qualcomm
looks set to be the leading patent holder in 4G wireless
communications after recording 24% of ETSI (European
Telecommunications Standards Institute) declarations surrounding
LTE, according to ABI Research.
Qualcomm has 16% of the 26,000 patents that have potential
relevance to 4G technology generally, including WiMAX, says
ABI.
"Innovation in this space continues unabated. 6%," says Stuart
Carlaw, chief research officer at ABI Research, "given that these
declarations reflect work completed 18 months ago, it is very
feasible that this landscape could shift again during the coming
two years as we see the 4G market ramp up."
Other notable players in the LTE field include Interdigital
(18%), Huawei (10%), LG (9%), Nokia (9%) and Samsung (7%). When
considering the whole 4G environment Samsung takes second spot with
12% of all patent filings, and Nokia takes third with 6%.
"We see no major reason why the licensing situation in 4G will
be significantly different from that for 3G", says Carlaw, "there
is still a big list of 'haves' but also a large list of
'have-nots'. The only major change is that the list of haves has
changed significantly to embrace newly active patent holders such
as Samsung and Huawei."
The research was compiled through analysis of IEEE declarations
of essentiality as well as a full search of patents relating to
OFDM, OFDMA, Beamforming, SDMA, HARQ, SC-FDMA, MIMO and Fast Power
Control.