Report lifts the lid on mobile patent trends

Although the United States remains a leader in terms of overall quality and quantity of mobile device technologies, Chinese companies are starting to step up in the industry, according to a report unveiled last week by wireless analyst Chetan Sharma Consulting.

The report, titled Mobile Patents Landscape 2015, is based on analysis of patent applications and granted patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office since 1997.

The report looked at mobile related patents for the 65 top companies from the two IP jurisdictions, which are among the most important in the mobile industry.

Chetan Sharma Consulting analyzed more than 7 million patents granted by the USPTO and EPO during the past two decades to understand how mobile has become a key enabler for technology companies.

The report said that there were 37 companies generating more than $1 billion dollars each in mobile digital services in 2014. This marked a growth from only nine in 2012.

It found that billion-dollar mobile companies were emerging from India, China and Europe, and that Africa and Latin America were not far behind.

IBM topped the list in the number of granted patents in the mobile segment in 2014, followed by Samsung, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Google. China's Huawei ranked 12th.

Samsung took the lead in the total number of mobile patents from 1997 to the first quarter of this year.

In 2014, China passed European leaders Germany and France to become the third player behind the US and Japan in terms of the number of patent applications.

The nation was also at the top in terms of growth rate.

The report noted that a number of emerging Asian companies, such as Mediatek, Alibaba, and Xiaomi, "have stepped up their IP efforts" and substantially increased filings in the US.

The report noted that an "interesting fact" was that in 2014, for the first time, more than 25 percent of all patents granted in the US were mobile related. The figure grew from about 2 percent in 1991 and 5 percent in 2001.

In contrast, roughly 9 percent of patents granted in Europe are now related to mobile.

Europe saw a 4 percent decline in mobile patents last year, while there was a 16 percent growth in the US market.

"If we look at the patent applications over the last decade, some of the traditional areas of communication have held their ground," the report said. It noted that multiplex communications and telecommunications remained the top two areas where companies compete for intellectual property.

With the advent of the smartphone and tablets, data processing, graphics processing, user interfaces and security have gained significant prominence, the report said.

zhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/09/2015 page17)