Introduction
Emerging 5G technology and its applications have garnered much attention, not only from the general public but also from the IP world. 5G standard essential patents and the companies that own them have become the focus of patent professionals and technical experts alike.
SEP OmniLytics is Patentcloud’s data-driven app specifically built to monitor and analyze standard-essential patent (SEP) declaration data curated from the ETSI IPR database.
Committed to providing transparent and insightful SEP declaration data, SEP OmniLytics strives to constantly discover new ways to evaluate the 5G SEP landscape.
Let us take a look at the 5G SEP landscape.
Summary
The data included in this infographic and article are provided by SEP OmniLytics and taken on June 30, 2021. For more details on our data (definitions and criteria), please see our article here.
Global SEP Overview
By the end of June 2021, a total of 342,397 SEP applications were declared at the ETSI IPR database. These applications are included in 60,179 simple families (DOCDB) and among these, 152,963 of the applications are active patents.
5G SEP Overview
For 5G SEPs, a total of 213,862 applications were found, covered by 40,541 simple families (DOCDB) and includes 91,621 active patents.
Top 5G Companies
Huawei is still currently leading the 5G SEP race in the number of simple families declared, followed by Samsung and LG Electronics. Currently, a total of 61 companies have declared 5G SEPs (of the 111 SEP-declaring companies).
Global Coverage
Apart from WIPO applications, most 5G SEP applications are deployed in the U.S., which also holds the most active standard-essential patents.
Following in 2nd and 3rd place are China and Europe.
Radio Technologies
5G SEPs have greatly surpassed the number of SEPs covering other radio technologies with 41,799 simple families. In 2020, 14,226 5G SEP families were declared, and we already see 5,861 5G SEP families declared this year (2021). With this continued growth, we may see the number of 5G SEP families surpass the sum of all LTE, 3G, and 2G SEPs by the end of 2021.
3GPP Working Groups
Looking at RAN1 and RAN2 working groups for 5G technology, the five top companies are Huawei, Samsung, LG Electronics, Qualcomm, and ZTE with Huawei in the lead and only a small difference in rankings for RAN1 and RAN2.
Important 5G Events in 2021 (H1)
- March 16th — Huawei announced that it will start to license its 5G patents starting this year with a royalty fee cap for a single unit at US$2.50. Learn more about the announcement and the Impact of 5G SEPs on the 5G Industry and Its Countermeasures.
- April 5th — LG Electronics announced its withdrawal from the smartphone market, as of July 31st. Check out our in-depth analysis of LG’s 5G SEP portfolio here.
For more 5G data and analytics, check out SEP OmniLytics yourself!
