Samsung tops LTE patent possession

By Yoon Sung-won

Samsung Electronics has owned the highest number of patents related to long-term evolution (LTE) technologies over the last two years, Taiwan’s patent authority said, Sunday.

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) said in its report on patent trends in the telecom industry that Samsung Electronics has been on the top perch among 66 global telecom-related businesses for having 954 standard-essential patents (SEPs) in the LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies, which accounts for 12.7 percent of the total. SEP refers to major patents that need to be applied to globally standardized products.

“Samsung’s LTE patent portfolio will benefit the company in dealing with possible patent disputes regarding telecom technologies in the future and in securing technological leadership in the fifth-generation telecom sector,” the company said.

The report placed Samsung Electronics at the top of the same chart comparing 43 telecom-related businesses last year. At that time, the company held a 17 percent share in the total registered patent rights.

As in the previous year, Qualcomm remained in the second spot with 11.9 percent. LG Electronics, which used to share the second spot with Qualcomm last year, fell to fifth place with 8.3 percent this year.

China’s Huawei had 5.3 percent to rank seventh whereas Apple had 1.8 percent.

TIPO said a total of 35 experts including Taiwan’s state researchers, patent lawyers and professors have analyzed 7,516 U.S. patents related to LTE and LTE-A, which have been registered to global LTE standardization organizations over the last three years.

Samsung Electronics launched its new LTE service, which provides faster upload and download speeds, through its latest flagship smartphone Galaxy S7 in March.