LTE-A Patents
With the commercialization of LTE-A, the number of patent applications for LTE-A is reported to be steadily increasing. In particular, LG Electronics is receiving a lot of attention, since the company retains the largest number of LTE-A patents in Korea.
According to officials at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the applications for LTE-A related patents began in late 2008, and the number of approved LTE-A patents increased dramatically from 2010. It is due to the fact that the number of those patents obtained by partners of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) grew, and continue to do so to this day.
The company that holds the largest number of LTE-A related patents is LG Electronics, with 426 patents, or 24% of the total. Samsung Electronics is the next-largest patent holder with 295 patents (16%), followed by Pantech with 141 patents (18%), and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute with 71 patents (4%).
SK Telecom retains 68 patents (4%) and KT 51 patents (3%). The steady rise in the number of patents obtained by mobile carriers is attributable to their effort to provide high-quality service and dominate the domestic LTE-A service market.
However, domestic firms are not the only ones with patents. Foreign companies are also major LTE-A patent holders. For example, Qualcomm, Ericsson, ZTE, and Nokia have 272 patents, 43 patents, 31 patents, and 20 patents, respectively.
Currently, 3GPP partners in the world are preparing for Beyond 4G and the fifth generation, and they will finalize LTE-A at the latter half of this year.
At the local level, the Giga-KOREA Project, which is aimed at developing Gbps broadband connections 40 times faster the current broadband infrastructure, will be initiated to prepare for the fifth generation of Wi-Fi technology. Thus, the number of patents related to this technology is likely to grow.